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•

PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AND CITIES

AUSTRALIA

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DELHI AND THE
DURBAR

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WILD FLOWERS AND THEIR I BIRD LIFE OF THE SEASONS
WONDERFUL WAYS BRITISH BUTTERFLIES

BRITISH FERNS, CLUB- I NATURAL HISTORY OF THE
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BRITISH LAND MAMMALS | ROMANCE OF THE ROCKS

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PEEPS AT MANY LANDS

PANAMA

EDITH A. BROWNE, F.R.G.S

WITH SIXTEEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
• EIGHT OF THEM IN COLOUR

LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1913

To JOHN

croft li

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE POPULAR IDEA OF PANAMA .... I

II. OUR PROGRAMME . . . . . . 4

III. THE WAY TO PANAMA . . . . . .12

iv. THE WAY TO PANAMA (continued] . . . .17

V. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA . . . . .21

VI. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (continued) ... 25

VII. PANAMA AND THE NEGRO . . ... 30

VIII. PANAMA AND THE NEGRO (continued) • • • 33

IX. THE SPANISH MAIN 39

x. THE SPANISH MAIN (continued) .... 44

XI. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CANAL ZONE IN IQI2 . 48
XII. IN THE DAYS OF THE BUCCANEERS . . . 56

XIII. THE FRENCH FIASCO 64

XIV. THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS .... 70
XV. THE PANAMA CANAL AUTUMN, 1912 . . . 75

XVI. PANAMANIAN COUNTRY 85

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. MARKET-PLACE IN COLON. (In colour) . . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

2. A PANAMANIAN VILLAGE. (In colour) .... 9

3. LOOKING ACROSS THE CULEBRA CUT, CANAL ZONE,

PANAMA. (In colour) . 1 6

4. BANANA TRAFFIC ON THE CH ACRES RIVER . . 19

5. TOWER AT OLD PANAMA ...... 22

6. STARLIGHT IN PANAMA BAY. (In colour) . . .25

7. PANAMANIAN POLICEMAN AND SHOEBLACK. (In colour) . 32

8. THE FUMIGATION GANG MAKING PANAMA HABITABLE 4!

9. STEAM SHOVEL DISGORGING 48

10. OUTSIDE A CHURCH IN THE MODERN CITY OF PANAMA.

(In colour) . . . . . . . • 5 7

11. THE CHIEF ENGINEER'S HOUSE AT CULEBRA OVERLOOK-

ING THE FAMOUS " CUT " ON THE PANAMA CANAL.

(In colour) ........ 64

12. PART OF THE GATUN LOCKS . . . . . 6j

13. GORGON A, CANAL ZONE ... -7°

14. CULEBRA CUT 73

15. BALBOA, AT THE PACIFIC END OF THE CANAL . . 80

j6, LITTLE PANAMANIANS POUNDING THEIR SUPPER. (In colour)

On the cover

Sketch- Map on page viii

Vii

PANAMA

CHAPTER I

THE POPULAR IDEA OF PANAMA

NOT long ago I asked a boy friend of mine whether he
could tell me anything about Panama, and this was his
reply :

" It's soon going to be a wonderful canal, like Suez, and
then they won't ,be able to make any more hats there ;
but lots of people and things will have a fine chance of
getting about the world faster, and without so much fag,
when America is cut in halves to let ships through."

In trying to discover what the name " Panama " usually
conveys to people, I had previously put a similar question,
directly and indirectly, to many grown-ups of both sexes
belonging to that large class which is commonly described
as " the man in the street," and to numerous boys and
girls of various ages. I was particularly pleased with my
young friend's answer because it helped me out of a diffi-
culty.

Regarding that general inquiry, please do not imagine I
conducted it on behalf of the superior folk who make a
hobby of trying to prove that the world is peopled mainly
by dolts, dunces and dead-and-alives. The extent of some
people's ignorance and indifference is a matter of small
concern to me compared with the keenness of certain other

PA. I

Panama

people's desire for knowledge. I have been persuaded, by
my own experience and observation, to believe that there
is a vast, and constantly increasing multitude of all sorts
and conditions of folk who naturally want to take an
interest in many things, to each of which only a few
people, comparatively speaking, can devote themselves as
specialists. On the time and attention of every child and
grown-up in that multitude a first claim is made by lessons,
a particular business or a pet hobby, but not one of them
wants his outlook to be bounded by his principal duty or
pleasure. To such people I was to talk about Panama ;
therefore to such people 1 went to discover what they
already knew about the subject. And the single-hearted,
single-minded object of my prying was to get a clue as to
how best to set a-going that talk so as to guard against
taking too much, or too little, for granted.

The variety of information I collected in the course of
sounding public opinion soon proved so wide as to be very
puzzling. There was no doubt in my mind that the
numerous combinations of facts, fancies and popular
fallacies of which individual opinions were composed had
" Canal " and <c Hats " for common factors. I was equally
convinced that there were other factors, such as imagina-
tion and experience, to be included in the greatest
common measure at which I was endeavouring to arrive.
But try as I would, I could not solve the problem to my
satisfaction. I was still turning it over in my mind when
I happened to meet the young friend to whom I have
already made special reference. And, by the way, he is as
good a sportsman for his age as he is a scholar. This
was the first time we had run across each other since my
return from Panama, and he immediately began to
clamour for " adventures."

The Popular Idea of Panama

" You tell me first," I said, when I could get a word in
edgeways, " what you think Panama is like."

Without a moment's hesitation came the reply I have
quoted, and thus I stumbled on what I believe to be a
fair sample of the popular idea of Panama. It indicates
a common state of wakefulness that is of far greater
importance than the common mistakes which I am about
to discuss.

A map of the Western Hemisphere in a medium-sized
atlas is usually responsible for our first impressions of
Panama. Having learnt the definition of an isthmus and
been referred to " Panama " as a good example thereof,
we turn to a map of the New World. There we
discover the name — printed in the sea, probably — at
right angles to a slip of country which is situated between
two big masses of land ; it is in the neighbourhood of
what seems to be the narrowest part of that slip, and
refers, apparently, to a dot, which we know to be the
sign for a town. We come to the conclusion that there
must be a town called "Panama," and that the isthmus
which also goes by the name is only a small tract of
country beginning with this town on the Pacific coast
and stretching a short distance northward, through the
thinnest part of the continental junction, to the Atlantic
coast.

Later on we learn to form some idea of the extent of a
mile, to realize the necessity for maps to be drawn to
scale, and to understand that when we consult a map we are
expected to take an intelligent interest in the accompany-
ing explanation of the measurements by which the part of
the world represented has been reduced to fit the paper.
We also become more or less familiar with a number of
maps showing the New World in detail, and in those of

3

Panama

Central America we see the name c< Panama" not only in
small letters alongside a dot, but in important-looking
capitals, which are spread out to occupy the whole length
of the link whereby that tapering country is connected with
South America. Gradually we get the idea that the Isthmus
of Panama covers quite a large area of ground ; that, even
with the best of level roads at our service, we could not
cross the narrowest portion on Shank's Pony in less than
six hours, or make a walking tour throughout its entire
length in much less than a month. And we are inclined
to doubt the existence of such roads, since we have
gathered from geography books that the district is
mountainous and has but few towns.

No wonder some of us upon hearing for the first time
there is going to be a Panama Canal think, if only for a
moment, that it will occupy practically the whole isthmus.
Childish memories of Panama, as first seen on a map of
the Western Hemisphere, lead the imagination very
much astray by such a suggestion, but at the same time
they truthfully, though roughly, indicate the Canal's
general line of direction.

CHAPTER II

OUR PROGRAMME

THE Isthmus of Panama extends from Costa Rica, in
Central America, to Colombia, in South America, and in
shape resembles the letter " S " turned this way — (\,. It is
425 miles in length, and has an average breadth of about
70 miles. The Canal crosses a part which is only
about 40 miles broad ; its shore to shore route lies
between Colon on the Atlantic seaboard and the city of

4

Our Programme

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PANAMA CANAL, SHOWING NEARNESS OF BRITISH

POSSESSIONS.

After the drawing published by the Reviev of Reviews.

5

Panama

Panama on the Pacific seaboard. The relative position
of these towns being as north-west to south-east, the
Canal had necessarily to be made in an oblique general-
line of direction. The nature of the country to be
crossed is responsible for a little zigzagging in the
actual line of route, and for the astonishing way in
which the course switchbacks over the highlands from
sea to sea.

The popular idea of the Canal as the scene of a wed-
ding between the waters of the Atlantic and those of the
Pacific is delightfully romantic but entirely wrong. For
a number of years many clever heads tried to bring about
the marriage, but all their schemes were frustrated by the
natural obstacles which stand in the way thereof. To
effect such a union a sea-level passage, of sufficient width
for a serviceable canal, would have to be carved through
a formidable barrier of highlands ; and all the work of
removing mountains would only be preparatory, for
throughout the length and breadth of the smoothed
passage a ditch would have to be dug to a depth in which
the seas could unite to float ocean-going craft. The
great De Lesseps, who won immortal fame by making a
sea-level canal across the Isthmus of Suez portion of a
sandy desert, failed in an attempt to pierce a similar
passage through the rocky mountains of the Isthmus of
Panama.

The Panama Canal, an outcome of American enter-
prise, is an epoch-marking artificial waterway. Therein
lies its only kinship with the Suez Canal, a French
triumph. As regards construction, appearance and
character these two masterpieces are entirely dissimilar.

The Suez Canal, as all of you know, has long been in
use as a short cut to the Far East. When I saw the

6

Our Programme

Panama Canal, in the autumn of 1912, that short cut in
the interests of Far Western development was still in the
making. Much had been done, much had yet to be
done, in the sea sections at either end. At this stage of
our talk I can best serve my purpose by confining definite
particulars of these terminal works to the simple state-
ment that both in the Atlantic and the Pacific deep-water
channels had been buoyed off and partially dredged. Of
the actual pass across the Isthmus a portion at each
extremity was so nearly completed that water had been
allowed to fill the vast gaps ; the extensive central por-
tion was in various advanced stages of preparation for
receiving water. It was expected that the Canal would
be officially opened on January i, 1915, but that it
would be ready for a ship to be taken through on a trial
trip by the autumn of 1913. The men in charge of
"the biggest engineering job that has ever been done in
the world " were looking forward to making that trial
trip on the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of
the Pacific by Balboa, the explorer — second only in fame
to Columbus — who first beheld the great South Sea
on September 26, 1513 (October 7, according to the
calendar now used). With a view to emphasizing the
sharp contrast between the features of the Suez and
Panama Canals, I am going to anticipate the general
appearance of the latter in its finished state.

In going through the Suez Canal, from the Mediter-
ranean to the Red Sea, a vessel passes from the open
ocean into a sea-level ditch at Port Said, slowly makes her
way for several hours along this duct, creeps into a series of
natural lakes, steers a course through them into the con-
fines of an obvious continuation of the duct and keeps on
in this groove to Suez, whence she glides into another

7

Panama

spacious sea where she can once more go full steam ahead.
This Canal neither scales hills nor drops down dales : the
entire surface of its waters is level with that of the seas it
unites, and the flat surface of its desert confines is only
slightly above the water-level. It is TOO miles long ;
of sufficient depth to accommodate vessels drawing twenty-
six feet of water ; and wide enough to permit of traffic
being carried on simultaneously in opposite directions —
but when two ships are about to meet, one receives orders
by signal to tie up to the side until the other gets past,
and if they are both big ships the people on their respec-
tive upper decks can very nearly reach to shake hands
whilst the moving vessel is being carefully piloted clear
of the stationary one.

In passing through the Panama Canal, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, a vessel sails for about four miles
within the buoyed boundaries of a deep-water channel in
Limon Bay, then enters the Isthmus of Panama through
an opening in the low-lying arena of a hill-girt amphi-
theatre. Here she begins an adventurous journey
through a region of jungle-clad wilds. For about three
miles her course lies along a broad ditch, the water in
which is kept at sea-level by the Atlantic. Suddenly she
has to come to a standstill, for the ditch is blocked by a
massive gateway, which supports two pairs of giant gates
that are tightly closed. Presently, the twin gates on one
side are flung wide, giving access to a lock chamber ; the
vessel is towed into that chamber, the gates behind her
are closed, and by a flight of three locks she is lifted
85 feet to the level of an artificial lake. Through
that fresh-water lake, whose basin is an enormous reser-
voir for the waters of a large river fed by numerous
tributaries, the ship travels about twenty-four miles, then,

8

>

Our Programme

slowing down, she passes into a ditch in the depths of an
artificially made ravine. At the end of this nine-mile-
long passage between mountain walls she enters a lock,
and is lowered 30^- feet to a second, and much smaller,
artificial lake, which is fed by the waters of another river.
By way of this lake, which is at an elevation of 54! feet
above sea-level, she gets one and a half miles farther on her
journey, and is then lowered by locks in two steps to a
sea-level ditch, wherein mingle the waters of a river and of
the Pacific Ocean. A run of about four miles between
jungle-clad banks brings her to Balboa, which is situated
on the outskirts of Panama city and at the land's end of
the Canal on the Pacific coast. Here the ditch merges
into a deep-water channel in the Bay of Panama, and
within its buoyed boundaries the vessel sails on for about
four and a half miles, when she passes out into the
naturally deep waters of the open Pacific.

The entire length of the Panama Canal, from deep
water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific, is about
fifty miles. Its length from shore-line to shore-line is
about forty miles. Its minimum width of 300 feet is
three times that of the Suez Canal ; its maximum width
is 1,000 feet, and this is maintained for several miles in
the channel through the great lake. The depth varies
from 41 to 85 feet. The locks are in pairs, hence
vessels going in opposite directions can continue their
journey simultaneously, even when some want to be taken
" upstairs " and others " downstairs." The size of the
largest vessel which can go through the Canal is limited
by the size of the lock chambers ; so generous are their
dimensions that they can accommodate a titan such as the
Olympic.

The Canal is centrally situated within a ten-miles-wide
PA. 9 2

Panama

strip of the Isthmus of Panama. That strip is known as
the " Canal Zone " and belongs to the United States of
America ; thither we are going to watch the Canal in the
making ; to follow the fortunes of the Americans in
charge of the work : to get a peep at the everyday life of
their black, tan, and white labour force, which has been
drawn from all quarters of the globe ; and to see the now
toylike-looking fragment of a neighbouring canal, which
swallowed up millions of money and was a gigantic French
failure.

The large portions of the Isthmus on either side
of the Zone constitute the Republic of Panama. Among
the attractions which will lure us into native territory
are sights and scenes typical of Panamanian life ;
remnants of the Spanish Main, which look exactly as they
did in the romantic days when the New World was being
gradually discovered ; Indians, whose ancestors defied
explorers and * pirates from the Old World ; and ruins
which tell exciting stories of England and Spain as rival
Empire-builders.

To this rough programme of the amusements which
Panama has in store for us I must add a warning note.
Not a single Panama hat shall we see being made in any
part of the Isthmus. The feather-weight and flexible
sun-hats which have become so popular under a mislead-
ing name are a speciality of the South American Republic of
Ecuador. The town of Guayaquil is the centre of the
industry, and among the group of little places which con-
tribute to the output Montecristo is responsible for a
large proportion of the finest quality specimens. I have
made numerous inquiries with a view to discovering how
it happened that a unique export from one country came
to be so closely associated by name, in the outside world,

10

Our Programme

with'another country. There does not appear to be any
authentic explanation of this curious misunderstanding,
but here is a very plausible one that was suggested to me
in Panama city by an old British resident, who can
remember the time when the headgear in question was
quite a novelty in England.

The rise to popularity of so-called Panama hats dates
from about the middle of last century, when the first
civilized facilities for traffic across the Isthmus of Panama
were provided by the opening of a railway between
Panama city and Colon. At that time some specimens of
the native-made hats of Ecuador had already found their
way to Panama city, one of the nearest neighbouring
centres of population ; in all probability they were
originally taken there as curios by native traders. The
short-cut railway between the Pacific and the Atlantic was
the means of developing a heavy traffic across the Isthmus.
Soon, many travellers were passing through Panama city
en route for the west coast of North, Central, and South
America, or on the way home from the far west of the New
World. Naturally, they were delayed at this land-and-
sea junction, as also at Colon, whilst goods were being
transfered from ship to train, or vice versa ; and, naturally,
they whiled away some of their time at the junctions by
wandering through the streets and seeing what they could
pick up in the shops. In the bazaar-like marts of Panama
they discovered a new kind of sun-hat ; the novelty took
their fancy because it was an ideal hat for a traveller in
tropical climes — affording shade when needed, and yet
capable of being tightly rolled up, umbrella fashion, for
packing purposes without suffering any injury. Shop-
keepers soon sold their few specimens of these hats, and,
as a matter of course, sent for further supplies on a larger

ii

Panama

scale ; equally as a matter of course they began to make
systematic efforts to court custom for goods which had
attracted attention on their own merits. A brisk retail
trade in the imported speciality was quickly established,
and each casual patron took his new possession to some
destination in a distant land. When, in some far-away
spot, the owner of one of these " straws " was encouraged
by a particularly sunny day to defy fashion for the sake
of comfort, to his surprise friends and acquaintances did
not make fun of his strange headgear. In a tone of
envy, rather than of jocularity, they asked :

" Where did you get that hat ?"

And always the reply was :

" Panama."

Thus, it would seem, these hats acquired the name by
which they are popularly known.

CHAPTER III

THE WAY TO PANAMA

THE best way of getting from England to the Isthmus of
Panama happens to be a particularly good one in every
respect. The voyage can be made direct, from Southamp-
ton to Colon, in eighteen days ; the service is a regular
one, running fortnightly, and is maintained by a fine fleet
of steamers, which carry the West Indian and New York
mails and belong to an old-established British shipping
firm, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company ; a con-
siderable portion of the route lies through scenery that is
world-famous for its splendour and its historic associations ;
and the ports of call abound in a variety of novel enter-
tainments.

12

The Way to Panama

The services between America and Panama are equally
good and more frequent. The voyage from New York
to Colon only takes eight days, inclusive of a trip ashore at
Cuba and Jamaica.

Strains of a familiar tune are mingling with the briny
breeze as we board the steamer at Southampton. The
ship's orchestra is playing in the library. Music hath
charms to dull the pangs of parting, and when this last
and most trying half-hour of " good-byes " has thus been
deprived of some of its lingering power, the artistes will
have accomplished another of the many good works which
go to the making of everyday life, and which are seldom
recorded, hardly ever recognized, except they be performed
under exceptionally dramatic circumstances. Once the
ship is under way, much of the sorrow now lurking
around will speedily have its sting sheathed. The people
who must go will fall under the influence of the numerous
distractions of ship-life ; the daily round will assert its
first claim on those who must stay behind. Not that
absence will lead to forgetfulness. On the contrary, for
many of those who are about to part, and are not likely
to meet again for years to come, there will be minutes
that seem like hours, hours that seem like days, when the
sting of loss will stab their hearts, again to cause pain that
makes life wellnigh unbearable. And knowing this we
need not feel horrified, but should, rather, be very glad,
when on the starry eve of a day not a week ahead we shall
certainly see most of our now downcast fellow-travellers
merrily joining in a dance on the promenade deck, which
has been trimmed with bunting and illuminated with
fairy-lamps for the occasion ; and when we shall quite
likely find them " tripping the light fantastic toe " to
the strains of the same popular waltz melody which is

13

Panama

now tempering the pathos that haunts an outward-bound
liner.

Some of you, I expect, are thinking :

But we are only going away for a short time, and for
a pleasure trip. We were so pleased to hear the music
as we came on board because it was jolly like we were —
and now

And now there is not the slightest necessity for you or
me to get melancholy because some of our neighbours are
rather sad. People who get gloomy over other folk's
troubles are about as weak-kneed as those who fancy they
are very ill the moment they hear that someone in the
next street has influenza. Besides, sorrow is more likely
to flee at the sound of laughter than at the sight of tears.
So let us be our natural selves, and quite unusually cold-
blooded we should be if we were not naturally inclined to
feel elated at the prospect of a holiday expedition — by the
by, if you do not all come back feeling happy, the entire
blame will rest with me as your guide. I was not for-
getting my responsibility to you in that role when I
turned your thoughts, for a moment or two, to some of
your fellow-passengers who do not happen to be holiday-
makers ; you are all of you, I feel sure, likely to enjoy
the voyage the more for embarking on it with a little of
the understanding that makes for sympathy.

Upon leaving the home port the vessel is piloted past
the Isle of Wight, and so close to the shores of both
mainland and island is the deep-water passage through the
Solent that, as we are favoured with a fine day, we get
some memorable views of the picturesque scenery for
which this part of England is famous, and of many oft-
quoted landmarks such as Netley Hospital and the Needles.

Just before emerging into the open waters of the

The Way to Panama

English Channel the ship slows down, and a small boat
comes alongside to take the pilot ashore. As the little
boat draws near, a rope is thrown out to her by a
sailor on the lower deck of our big ship, and the free end
is dexterously caught by one of the boat-hands. To-day,
the little craft is easily brought alongside and held in
position by means of the brace, but when a big sea is
running she is more difficult to control, and the transfer
business is in the nature of an adventure. The pilot
makes his way from the bridge to the lower deck,
followed by a sailor who carries his bag. Meanwhile, a
rope ladder has been thrown over the side of the ship,
and down this perilous- looking suspension the important
official clambers to within a few feet of the water, when,
after watching for his opportunity and quickly seizing it
when it comes, he drops into his boat. His bag is lowered
by a rope, the boatmen pull off, and our ship goes full
steam ahead for Cherbourg, on the French coast.

Letters and telegrams can be sent off by a shore-going
pilot boat. And the boat that brings a pilot aboard a
vessel often carries a package of letters and telegrams for
passengers, sent by friends and relations who are familiar
with the postal facilities for communicating with ships on
the high seas.

There is more to be gained than entertainment — peace
of mind, for instance — by a little knowledge of the common
events of ship life. As witness to the truth of this state-
ment, here is a story about two inexperienced travellers
with whom I once sailed ; and I can assure you that from
my own experience alone I could narrate several such
absurd stories having a similar origin, namely fear rooted
in ignorance, and dealing with delusions that might
equally give rise to a panic as to a farce.

Panama

An Eastward-bound ship made the passage down the
Thames under the best of weather conditions, but this
happy beginning to a voyage at a time of year when that
river is wont to be mantled in fog did not have any
cheering effect on two ladies who were making their first
trip across the ocean. They had come on board haunted
by the idea that the chances are always all against any
ship reaching her destination ; indeed, they were very
nearly akin to old-fashioned country-folk, for whom a
train journey was a strange and terrifying undertaking in
days long after most people had learnt to enter a railway
carriage with as little fear as they would get into a
donkey- cart.

The two nervous novices were strangers to each other,
but the fates had decreed that they should be "stable
companions," to use the seafaring term for people who
share a cabin. They were certainly companions in distress
throughout a river trip which induced the passengers as
a whole to indulge in such exclamations as : " What luck
to get a beautiful day like this for a start off — and in
January, too." When the ship had glided through the
mouth of the river on to a sea that was as smooth as a
pond, they were still in no mood to appreciate blessings,
but continued to buttonhole officers, crew and fellow-
passengers with poorly disguised inquiries about all sorts
of possible and impossible misadventures.

Night came, stars studded the sky, and in due course
people retired to their cabins. At about three o'clock in
the morning, when the stars were still shining brightly and
the sea was still perfectly smooth, the electric light was
suddenly switched on in a particular cabin. Half a second
later a figure sprang up in the opposite bunk. For
a few moments two terrified females, half in and half out

1 6

LOOKING ACROSS THE CULEBFA CUT, CANAL ZONE, PANAMA.

The Way to Panama

of their bunks, sat looking at each other and straining
their ears to catch every sound of some disturbance that
was going on outside.

" Sh," whispered one.

<c They're getting the boats out," cried the other.

ccSo they are," was the awestruck rejoinder.

Then they both slid to the floor and made a dart for the
same lifebelt. Together they dragged it from its shelf, and
heedless of two others which were sent sprawling to the
ground, hung on to it like grim death. A violent struggle
was interrupted by a drowsy voice from the third bunk :

C{ Oh, do be sensible and go to sleep, you two.
What will you find to be frightened at next ? We're
only putting off the pilot."

CHAPTER IV

THE WAY TO PANAMA (continued)

FROM Cherbourg our ship steers a westerly course
through the English Channel until Land's End is passed ;
then, having reached the open Atlantic, she heads south-
west, to follow an oblique line of route that is a short cut
to the Tropics. Four days after leaving Southampton we
are calling at the little island of St. Michael's, in the
Azores group. As the ship stays in port for a few hours
we can make a brief excursion ashore.

We land at the foot of a hill, and soon discover that
we are in a quaint, Portuguese town. The people we
meet are Portuguese in appearance ; the steep, straggling
streets, with Portuguese names, are bordered by colour-
washed houses and shops, on which names and notices
are displayed in the Portuguese language.

PA. 17 3

Panama

Although we have not yet reached the Tropics, we are
on an island which is famous for the production of a
tropical fruit, the pineapple. St. Michael pines require
a certain amount of protection, not forcing, so they are
reared in glasshouses. But many plants that can only
just exist in England under close confinement in a hot-
house grow to perfection in the open air on these sunny
shores. Let us take a carriage and drive to one of the
most beautiful gardens that I know of anywhere in the
world.

At a gate that gives access to some private grounds,
in which, by courtesy of the owner, we have permission
to roam, we are met by a gardener. Under his guidance
we loiter through a long avenue of giant camellia-trees,
whose branches are heavily laden with pink and white
blooms ; emerge on the margin of a billowing expanse,
which seems to be the show-ground for a fine collection
of English cottage-gardens ; follow a serpentining path
between these hardy flower-beds until, reaching a won-
drous display of gardenias and suchlike sunlovers, we
pass under an arch of stephanotis into a fairyland of roses ;
strike off at a tangent through a thicket of Marechal
Niels ; scale a track piercing a magnificent rock-garden ;
and, plunging into a tropical wilderness, traverse a trail
that brings us to a sylvan glade, by which we wander
into an orange-grove, and thence into an old-world Italian
garden, whose trim hedges are pedestals for shear-modelled
birds, animals and fantastic images.

The shrill call of a siren warns us that we must be
making our way back to the steamer. We have but had
time to get a peep at part of these fascinating grounds,
but over and above the delight they have afforded all of
us through the colour, form and scent of their flowers and

18

IP

The Way to Panama

foliage, they have, I am sure, created a strong feeling of
surprise among those of you who have not been here
before. Is it not an extraordinary sight, this very mixed
company of Northern and Southern plants flourishing in
the same atmosphere?

St. Michael's Isle is, as it were, the junction for tem-
perate and tropical climes, and its vegetation is symbolic
of the contrast between the robust forces which play such
an influential part in moulding the general character, and
fixing the routine of life in a northerly region, and the
luxuriant powers which are largely responsible for the very
different character and routine of life in a land of eternal
summer. My principal object in bringing you to these
gardens was to help you to realize, through a pleasant
conflict of sensations, that we are going to an entirely
different part of the world from that we are leaving
behind.

As we turn our faces quaywards, our guide delights
our hearts with the information that we are at liberty to
pick any flowers that take our fancy, and as many of them
as we can carry away. Had we not seen England for
many months, and were now on the way back to the Old
Country, one and all of us, probably, would make straight
for the beds where we could collect a nosegay of stocks,
pansies, mignonette, columbines, forget-me-nots and love-
in-a-mist. Now, our desire is for the flowers which seem
to be chorusing the news that a wealth of novel experi-
ences will soon be falling to our lot. Manners put the
break on a greedy instinct that tempts us to make the
most of our limited time and complete freedom — we begin
to pick single specimens of choice blooms ; whereupon
our guide breaks off some big sprays from a gardenia bush,
distributes them, and with a wide sweep of the arm sug-

Panama

gests that there is not the slightest reason for us to be
helping ourselves so modestly.

In a jolly-boat, which is being made to live up to her
name, and which looks as if she were carrying us off to
take part in a Battle of Flowers, we go back to the steamer.
Our cabins and the dining-tables are soon richly decorated
with stephanotis, orange-blossoms, camellias, cherry-pie,
and many a sprig, spray and streamer bearing bright-hued,
sweet-scented blooms, which are none the less pleasing
because we are ignorant of their names.

The flowers which have replaced those brought from
England are in harmony with a general rise of spirits
among the passengers. Not that life on the steamer has
previously been at all dull, but people have been amusing
themselves, and their own particular friends, by the help
of such hobbies as reading, chatting, and a game of cards
or chess. All experiments in the way of forming new
acquaintances have been hampered by shyness and
reserve.

But by high-tea time to-night the children have made
some discoveries that call for common discussion and
general rejoicing — the nice Captain has said they may start
paddling to-morrow morning whilst the decks are being
swabbed ; the tall officer (heated discussion as to whether
he is the Chief, Second or Third) has promised to rig up a
swing ; the jolly man with a bald head is going to get up
some Juvenile Athletic Sports — running round the deck, a
sack-race, chalking the pig's eye, and that sort of thing.
There are to be prizes, too, lots of prizes. Where will
the prizes come from ? Why, from the barber's shop, of
course. Can it really be possible that Jimmy has been on
board all this time without discovering the barber's shop,
almost next door to his own cabin, where you can buy

20

The Way to Panama

sweets, toys and all kinds of quite decent things — lots of
them real silver.

Equally excited are the grown-ups who hasten to the
saloon when the bugler sounds the call for dinner. Not
only is everyone ready to do justice to another excellent
table-d'h6te meal, but everybody is anxious to meet
everybody else so as to find out how much truth there is
in the rumours that have been flying round about a Fancy
Dress Ball, with prizes for the best costumes made on
board, a Concert, and numerous other festivities.

To-day the sun has begun to get into everyone's blood.
To-morrow morning all the passengers will be wearing
summer clothes, and talking together as though they had
known each other for years ; officers will have discarded ser-
viceable-looking serge uniforms for holiday-looking "white
ducks " ; and the deck steward will be bringing round
ice-creams instead of beef-tea for intermediate refresh-
ment.

CHAPTER V

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

A MERRY-GO-ROUND week has passed, and now, twelve
days after leaving Southampton, we are in the very near
neighbourhood of the West Indies. The island of Bar-
bados is in sight, but yonder shore is a few miles farther
away than it looks. Whilst we are getting into port
there will be time for me to remind you of the circum-
stances which led to the discovery of the New World, and
brought about a stirring series of events in connection
with the portion thereof which is known as the Spanish
Main. The West Indian islands have played an impor-
tant part in the Panama Canal enterprise ; and we shall

21

Panama

soon be sailing along the coast of the Spanish Main,
which was the scene not only of many famous exploits
in the history of Spanish America, but of the discovery of
a new ocean which gave birth to the idea of a Panama
Canal. So I am sure you will agree with me that there
could be no more suitable opportunity than we now have
for a chat about Columbus and the far-reaching effects of
his explorations.

Cristovalo Colon, popularly known as Christopher
Columbus, was born at Genoa in, or about, the year 1435.
From his infancy he showed a passion for the sea, and
quite an extraordinary taste for geometry, astronomy, and
everything connected with navigation. He was sent to
a school in Pavia, and there, at the express desire of his
parents, he was allowed to devote most of his time to the
subjects which particularly interested him. At the early
age of fourteen he went to sea. After having made
several voyages, both in the Mediterranean and the
Northern Seas of Europe, he went, in 1470, to live at
Lisbon, which was then the most famous European centre
for naval exploration.

For more than half a century the little kingdom of
Portugal had been winning renown as the pioneer in
naval improvements, the discoverer of new lands, and the
searcher for new sea routes. For this distinction it was
indebted to Prince Henry of Portugal, a nephew of King
Henry IV. of England. Prince Henry was entrusted
with the administration of Portugal's naval affairs in the
early part of the fifteenth century. He continued to
burn the midnight oil over the study of mathematics and
geography ; mixed with the Moorish merchants of Africa
in order to get as much information as possible from them ;
made numerous improvements in the art of shipbuilding ;

22

Photo by Marine, Panar

TOWER AT OLD PANAMA

The Discovery of America

fired his countrymen with an enthusiastic appreciation of
the mariner's compass, and taught them how to reckon
latitude and longitude by the help of the stars ; gathered
around him naval adventurers from all parts of the world ;
founded the town of Sagrez, and, in 1418, fitted out in
that port the first exploring expedition that ever sailed
from a European base. Owing to his able administra-
tion as a sea-lord Portugal discovered Madeira and the
Azores.

Columbus married the daughter of one of Prince
Henry's most distinguished captains, and his wife brought
him a rich dowry in the form of her father's journals and
charts. He studied these fascinating documents until he
thoroughly understood them, made several voyages to
Madeira and the Portuguese settlements in Western
Africa, and gradually won fame as the greatest navigator
of the age.

From his early youth he had been bent on discovering
a sea route to India. All the great sailors in those days
had that same ambition at heart, but from the moment
the Portuguese passed Cape Verde and found the coast of
Africa bending eastwards, general opinion favoured the
belief that the sea route to India had already been partly
tracked. Hence nearly all naval adventurers wanted to
follow round the coast of Africa, for they were convinced
that this was the most direct way into the Indian Ocean.
But Columbus thought differently. His idea was that
the shortest route to India would be found by steering
westwards. The idea, which came to him when he was
a child, originated in his belief that the world was round,
and was fostered by the legends of ancient geographical
writers, who had very exaggerated notions about the size
of India. As the child developed into the man, a pet

23

Panama

fancy became a haunting conviction. Mature thought
and considerable seafaring experience made Columbus
feel so positive that he could quickly reach the East by
sailing to the West, that at last he could no longer resist
the desire to seek practical proof of his theory. His
patriotic heart prompted him to give his own country the
first chance of reaping the benefits that would result from
the discovery of a new trade route. He journeyed to
Genoa and put his idea before the Senate. But as he
could not arouse sufficient enthusiasm in his native land to
obtain the help he needed for fitting out an expedition,
he went back to Lisbon and laid his project before the
King of Portugal. Prince Henry and his royal master
and father, King John I., had now been dead for some
years, but the new King, John II., was vigorously pursuing
their naval policy. Under his patronage the explorer
Bartholomew Diaz had just discovered the Cape of Good
Hope. Columbus had every reason to believe that King
John II. would, in the name of Portugal, jump at the
chance of being his patron, too. But the King argued
that the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope went far
towards proving that a way could be found round Africa
to the East ; that by encouraging further explorations on
the old plan, which had produced a considerable amount
of evidence to support the belief that it was practicable,
Portugal might very soon have India within its grasp ;
that Columbus's scheme, on the other hand, was purely
speculative, although it sounded plausible and was very
interesting.

Columbus next sought help in Spain, which country
was just realizing the new power it had acquired by the
union of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, through
the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Ferdinand

24

STARLIGHT IN PANAMA BAY.

The Discovery of America

and his courtiers scoffed at the great navigator's theory;
but Isabella, who took a keen interest in the maritime
enterprise of the age, and who was anxious that all the
honour and profit from discoveries should not go to
Portugal and Italy, came to the conclusion that Colum-
bus's prospects of success were sufficiently good to justify
her in making the private speculation of fitting out a
small expedition for him. That decision, due to Isabella's
ambition, enlightened outlook, and generosity, was the
origin of the vast, rich and powerful possessions which
Spain acquired in the New World, and of Spain's famous
career as an Empire-builder. If Isabella had not been so
keenly alert to Spain's interests, the British Empire might
now include a considerable portion of South America.
For before starting for Spain Columbus sent his brother
to England to put before King Henry VII. the scheme for
tracking a western passage to the East, and there is
reason to believe that Henry was giving the project
favourable consideration at the time Isabella actually
determined to support it with funds from her private
purse.

CHAPTER VI

THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (continued)

THE preparations for Columbus's departure were carried
on in the port of Palos, on the coast of Andalusia. From
that port he set sail on the 3rd of August, 1492, in a
hundred-ton boat ; two other similar cockleshells made
up his entire fleet. He followed the known route to the
Canary Islands, then steered westwards into the unknown
waters of the Atlantic.

From the outset his sailors were troubled by fears.

PA. 25 4

Panama

Terror even goaded them into mutiny ; they wanted
Columbus to put back, and the dauntless navigator had
great difficulty in persuading them to help him in his
quest a little longer. Fortunately, land was sighted
before fear could again lead the sailors into open rebellion.
The joyous discovery was made early on the morning of
the 1 2th of October, and within a few hours from the
time when the good news rang through the ships Colum-
bus was setting foot on the shores of the New World.
He had reached one of the islands in the group now
known as the " Bahamas." He found himself in a well-
watered wilderness of tropical jungle, which was inhabited
by tawny-skinned people. The natives seemed to be
very poor ; nevertheless, they were wearing thin plates of
gold as ornaments. In a dumb-show conversation Colum-
bus learnt that the precious metal was obtained from
somewhere to the south ; whereupon he sailed away to
look for the treasure land. His next discovery was Cuba,
but as gold did not seem to be very abundant there he
resumed his voyage, and so came to Hayti. As that
island showed numerous signs of being able to yield
considerable wealth, Columbus erected a fort thereon and
garrisoned it with members of his crew. Then he set
sail for Europe.

When Columbus arrived back at Lisbon the King of
Portugal gave him a great reception. But it was in Spain,
naturally, that he was greeted as a hero for whom no praise
could be too high, no reward too great. There was no
need for him now to beg for a ship in which to go
exploring. On the contrary, Spain begged him to take
command of a second expedition to the West, and the
moment he agreed preparations for his departure were
commenced.

26

The Discovery of America

Columbus started from Cadiz on a second expedition
on the 25th of September, 1493, taking with him some
Spanish settlers for Hayti. During this voyage he dis-
covered a number of islands in the Caribbean Sea, several
of which are now included in the British West Indies.

During his third voyage, begun on the 3Oth of May,
1498, Columbus landed on the island of Trinidad. Upon
leaving there he again steered an experimental course,
which brought him to the near neighbouring mainland.

England, however, and one of his own countrymen
had forestalled him in the discovery of the American
Continent. For in 1497 John Cabot, a seaman of
Genoese birth, and his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol
with an English crew to seek an Atlantic route to the
East. They held a patent for Western discovery from
Henry VII., sailed under the British flag, and were
authorized, as the King's officers, to set up the British
colours on any new land they might find. This expedi-
tion was England's first attempt at exploration, and it
resulted in the discovery of Newfoundland on the 24th
of June, 1497. But *ne discovery by Columbus of the
South American mainland, following on his discovery of
the neighbouring islands, enabled Spain to become very
powerful in the New World, and to derive vast wealth
therefrom, long before England followed up the Cabots
discovery. It was not until the days of Drake that
England again turned her attention to America.

Later on we shall be talking about Drake, and many
other explorers and buccaneers who performed daring
deeds in the West. Meanwhile, I want you to remember
that, although we are talking about the newly discovered
lands under their well-known name of "America," for
many years they were believed to be western extensions

27

Panama

of Asia. Columbus died with the conviction that Cuba
was part of the Asiatic mainland.

Columbus first set foot on the American continent in
the region now known as Venezuela. But shortly after
this triumph he returned to Spain — as a prisoner in chains.
His fame had aroused much jealousy ; the adventurers
who had joined in his expeditions were discontented
because they had not found gold lying about in big
nuggets ; by cruelty the colonists in Hayti had driven
the peaceful natives into making war on them, and
Columbus had been saddled with the blame. When the
King of Spain sent a Governor out to Hayti with orders
to arrest its discoverer the moment he again touched at
that island, many people rejoiced in the belief that they
had accomplished the downfall of the now much hated
Columbus. But the great explorer managed to clear his
character, and once more he became a popular hero.

Columbus undertook a fourth voyage in the interests of
Spain. Upon this occasion he sighted land in the neigh-
bourhood of Nicaragua, Central America. On the I4th
of September, 1502, he doubled Cape Gracias a Dios, and
went on shore to explore a region to which he gave the
name of Cerabora. From the natives there he learnt that
gold was to be found in abundance in Veragua, a district
away to the east. This news made him hasten to put to
sea again. He sailed along the coast of the country now
called Costa Rica, and came to the Chiriqui Lagoon.
Somewhere in the vicinity of that lagoon Columbus first
set foot on the Isthmus of Panama, on the 2nd of Novem-
ber, 1502.

Whilst reconnoitring off the Panamian coast Columbus
was driven by a storm to seek shelter at a small island ;
as the spot where he found anchorage had an abundance

28

The Discovery of America

of fruits, fish and game he called it Puerto de Bastimento
—a place of supplies. A few days later he was once more
cruising in the open sea, but he had not travelled many
knots before another fierce gale forced him to put in to
the mainland. To the haven he then had the good luck
to find he gave the very appropriate name of Retrete.
From Retrete he sailed westward to the mouth of a river
which the Indians called Quiebra ; that river, to which
Columbus gave the name of Belen, now forms part of the
boundary between the provinces of Colon and Veragua.
At the mouth of the Belen he turned back, and sailed
eastwards as far as the islands of the Mulatto Archipelago,
in the Gulf of San Bias, stopping on the way at the spot
which is now the site of Portobelo. After making several
journeys backwards and forwards along the coast of
Panama he returned to Spain, in 1504. Illness had
brought him to the verge of a breakdown, and his enemies
had again got the ear of the King, who was only too ready
to find any excuse for not paying the reward he had pro-
mised to Columbus. The great explorer was too ill to
fight for his rights. He died in seclusion on the 2Oth of
May, 1506. His enemies had even triumphed to the
extent of associating the country he had found with the
name of Amerigo Vespucci, who only followed where
Columbus led. But after his death his friends proved
more powerful than his foes. " Columbus gave a new
world to Spain " was engraved on his monument, and
was the motto of his descendants.

Columbus believed that he had reached India. Herein
lies the explanation of the name "West Indian Islands."
And for the same reason all the aborigines of America
are commonly called " Indians."

29

Panama
CHAPTER VII

PANAMA AND THE NEGRO

OUR steamer has just dropped anchor off Bridgetown, the
capital of the British West Indian island of Barbados.
She will be stopping in port long enough for us to
make an excursion ashore, but we must not leave the
ship until the doctor has been on board to see that we
are not " infectious,'' and the harbourmaster to satisfy
himself that we are not "undesirable aliens." Mean-
while, plenty of amusement will be provided for us by
" Ten little nigger boys/' and a brigade of adult darkies
who have come out in small boats to meet the liner.

The children are remarkably clever divers, as you will
soon see if one of you will give the signal for which they
are chorusing. A penny will start the show. Yes, throw
it into the water, anywhere you like, and the farther
away the better will be the fun. Look at the youngsters
racing along in their home-made skiffs, with their eyes
fixed on the flying coin. A second later, and the coin
has disappeared — so have the boys. Now curly black
heads are popping up into the sunshine ; someone must
have found the penny, for the pickaninnies would not
come to the surface whilst there was a chance of making
money below. See, there is the prize-winner, he is just
banking the penny in his mouth. Little folks on the
ship do not find any difficulty in persuading fathers and
mothers to give them coppers to throw in the sea ; grown-
ups join in the flinging of the largess, coins are sent
flying, often after a make-believe start, in all directions,
and the diving exhibition becomes more and more exciting.

The older darkies, in charge of rowing boats which

30

Panama and the Negro

look very trim in comparison with the children's home-
made craft, are touting for passengers ; at the same time
they are so vigorously trying to do each other out of the
chance of being first to mount the gangway ladder that
we begin to fear all the boats will be capsized before we
are ready to go ashore.

What a hubbub ! Little and big darkies are shouting
at the top of their voices, and talking nineteen to the
dozen. Their antics and pranks make the general
meaning of their chatter quite plain ; but no wonder you
are all puzzled as to what language or languages they are
speaking. I can assure you that every one of them is
talking English. But English as she is spoken by a West
Indian negro sounds like a foreign tongue to untrained
ears. By the time we have come to our journey's end
you will have grown fairly familiar with the lingo in
which we are now being asked for pennies and patronage,
for we are going to see a great deal of Little Black Sambo
and his kith and kin. There are thousands of negroes at
work on the Panama Canal, and in common with all their
West Indian friends and relations they have a horror of
silence. When they are not talking they are singing —
folk songs occasionally, but hymns with a refrain are
more popular. And in talking — or writing — they never
use a short word if they can possibly make shift with a
long one, and show marked ability for steering clear of
a simple, straightforward sentence.

The Negro race was introduced into the New World by
the Spaniards because the native Indians were not strong
enough to endure the hardships of serving the colonists
and explorers. In the early expeditions into the interior
the Indians were used as carriers, and hundreds, thousands
in some parts it is said, died from the effects of being

31

Panama

overworked, overloaded and roughly treated. A threatened
dearth of drudges and beasts of burden led Spain into
pressing the African native into her Empire-building
service. Shiploads of negro slaves were sent to the West
Indies, Panama, and numerous other centres of Spanish
colonization ; as a result of the slave traffic, the bulk of
the population in Spanish-American territory soon con-
sisted of blacks. By the time slavery was abolished the
majority of the negroes in America were many generations
removed from African -born ancestors. The freed blacks
looked upon the country in which they had been born as
their homeland, and when they understood they could go
where they chose, they showed a strong preference for
staying where they were. Hence, negroes and coloured
folk are more numerous than white people in many parts
of the American continent and in all the West Indian
islands.

When the Barbadian boatmen are allowed on board
they begin a wily search for greenhorns who do not know
the regulation fare to the shore. All the people on
the ship seem to be familiar with the tariff. The boat-
men have had countless opportunities of learning that
British and American visitors to the West Indies have
occasionally been away from home before ; but no amount
of experience can teach a Barbadian negro not to be sur-
prised at finding anyone who knows as much as he does ;
he is the most enterprising of West Indian blacks, and
the most uppish. When, at last, the boatmen's demands
drop somewhere near to being reasonable, and bargaining
becomes general, we come to terms for the return
journey. A few minutes later we are landing at Bridge-
town.

H. A. Ri
PANAMANIAN POLICEMEN AND SHOEBLACK.

:J,ards, Colon.

Panama and the Negro
CHAPTER VIII

PANAMA AND THE NEGRO (continued)

THE island of Barbados is slightly larger than the Isle of
Wight. It is very flat and has only a few beauty spots ;
so far as scenery is concerned, it is the least attractive of the
West Indian islands. But in many respects Barbados is the
peer of its more beautiful neighbours, and it has won
distinction above them all as a health resort. The soil is
very fertile and the land has been remarkably well culti-
vated ; sugar-cane is the principal crop, and the pros-
perity of the little island has been largely the result of
British enterprise in connection with the sugar industry.
But during the last few years the Panama Canal has
played an important part in advancing the interests of
Barbados.

Bridgetown abounds in signs of the island's prosperity.
As we wander in the neighbourhood of the wharves we
have to be very careful to keep out of the way of the
" spider-men," who are running towards the quay, at break-
neck speed, in the shafts of skeleton carts, each of which is
loaded with a hogshead of sugar. A delicious smell of toffee
lurks in the air. We are shown over a warehouse that is
stocked with sugar, and we pass many others that have a
similar store of riches. In the principal streets we notice
several big shops. Here and there we espy imposing-
looking public buildings. There are white people driving
about in carriages. Among the swarms of coloured folk
in the streets there are no beggars.

You can understand, now, that sugar may have had a
great deal to do with making this town what it is, but you
are wondering how the Panama Canal can have influenced

PA. 33 5

Panama

its fortunes. Here are a few hints which will enable you
to spot several signs of that influence, and to realize the
way in which it has worked :

" In like manner as the Demerara gold-digger toils in a
half- clad, half-starved condition in the distant gold-fields
of Guiana, in like manner as he forgets his troubles and
goes the pace immediately he returns to the haunts of
civilization, so does the Barbadian toil and starve in the
Canal Zone, so does he forget, or seem to forget, his
recent hardships, on his arrival at Barbados after a spell
of hard work, and in a similar way does he start to be a
swagger fellow, whose presence makes the stores in Broad
and Swan Streets hum with quickened trade. . . .

" The dry goodsmen in Bridgetown are not one whit
behind each other in catering for the tastes of the in-
teresting individual under notice, who purchases things
which he needs, things he may need, and things which
he will never need with unimpeachable impartiality. . . .
His soul dearly loves such joy as the possession of a suit
of flaring tweeds brings with it — something with a pattern
which seems to say c come and have a game of chess ' ;
and his cup of happiness overflows if such minor blessings
as a gaudy neckcloth decorated with a brass pin and
an imitation Panama hat are thrown into the bargain.

" There is another kind of hat which has completely
captured his fancy, a variety of soft drab felt of the
c planter ' pattern, but having the distinctive virtue of
possessing two rims, one lying over the other. Our
most estimable friend turns one rim up and the other
down, and — well, c there you are/ as the drygoodsmen
say in mock admiration when they take him aside and
dress him up like a Christie Minstrel. In Panama an
improvised sweat-rag does fairly well as a handkerchief,

34 '

Panama and the Negro

and still more frequently the perspiration is removed from
the toiler's brow with a masterful scoop of the thumb, but
the same individual once returned to Barbados must wipe
his face with tinted silk, or with what he thinks is silk,
because his friends in Broad Street and Swan Street tell
him so — not on oath, though. One handkerchief is not
enough ; moreover, he must have three. One protrudes
in an aggressive-looking, hornlike taper from his breast-
pocket ; another is deposited in his hat-crown, the edges
showing around the wearer's head here and there to
betray its existence ; while the third handkerchief is
knotted negligently around the neck and is useful in
hiding ' tide-marks ' of trickling perspiration on the
hard-worked celluloid collar ; and occasionally even a
fourth coloured handkerchief, used to hail a passing
friend from a tram-car bench or a cab seat, is not an
unheard-of luxury. And then, too, his boots must be
stylish, even though they make him swear, then limp,
then swear and limp, and finally send him home with his
feet innocent of boots, which he carries in his hand for
comfort's sake. . . .

"The returned Panama Canal labourer is an uncommonly
vain fellow, and his vanity feeds largely on his imagina-
tion, which is of a sprightly enough kind. As he struts
along in all the glory of a gay tweed suit, a cylindrical
collar and a flaring necktie, one can see him smiling
complaisantly to himself now and then, as he glances
down at this fine raiment. For once the characteristic
Barbadian shrewdness seems to die out or sink into a
dormant condition. The empty flattery piled on him by
the active salesmen in the stores seems to get upon his
nerves and make him addle-headed. While the mood
lasts he is a conceited fool of the first water, who will

35

Panama

walk five or ten miles to make an exhibition of himself
and his new clothes to some particular individual, and as
he struts along one can almost see his imagination at
work, flattering him into believing that all Barbados is
whispering admiringly, ' There goes Mr. Cudjo Hogg
from Panama/ He will surely have bought a four-shil-
ling nickel watch and a massive copper chain, and his face
is a study as, with fitting impressiveness, he draws the
' ticker ' from his pocket and examines its face with a
weighty frown, a performance he repeats with an interval
of a few minutes. . . .

c< The red-hot fortnight after his return to Barbados,
with its numerous indiscretions and excesses, has made
something of a hole in * Mr. Cudjo Hogg's ' exchequer.
Often, by this time, his resources are entirely depleted ;
he climbs down to his former humble position with
abject humility of spirit, and the chances are ten to one
that he will be seen lurking about on the lookout for
someone to buy his nickel watch and copper chain, which
is a game that requires a lot of playing in Bridgetown
to be even moderately successful. Next comes the sale
of the much-prized clothes, and the proceeds of the last
lot sold go to the examining doctor in Bridgetown for the
necessary certificate of good health to enable the * broken
ship ' to set sail once again for Panama.

" It would, however, be manifestly untrue to state that
all the money that flows into Barbados from Panama is
frittered in the manner just described. c Panama money '
is no disguised blessing in the island, and one sees evidence
of its sensible application all over the colony. On yonder
hill-side little board and shingle cottages, still unpainted,
have sprung into existence, each being a home procured
by some faithful toiler, whose remittances to wife or

36

Panama and the Negro

mother or sister had arrived regularly. Those at home
had pinched and thumbed the money so that there would
be a surplus from the cost of living to buy lumber for
the erection of a cottage when the bread-winner at the
Isthmus returned home to ply hammer and saw in carrying
out his darling wish. The little home erected, off he
goes to Panama again, with an itching ambition to become
also the owner of the land on which he has built his
house. Sometimes the case is that of two young people
who wish to get married but lack the means for the initial
outlay. Comes the answer to the problem, c Go to
Panama/ c Panama Money,' has worked miracles at
Barbados and made paths smooth which would otherwise
have been hard and thorny.

Ct Visit the money order department of the Bridgetown
Post Office when remittances from Panama are being
cashed. What a scene is this, and what a crush, and
what a stream of money we see pouring over the counter
into the pockets of the people. This class of money
order business has outgrown its customary accommoda-
tion, and special arrangements have had to be made to
meet the increased volume of business ; and the services
of the police have been requisitioned to control the
surging stream of eager people awaiting their turn to get
their money orders cashed.

" As one observes the continuous payment of money to
the people, the extent of emigration from Barbados to
Panama is in some measure realized, also the extent
to which the island's labour market is over-manned to be
able to spare so many labourers of a class who comprise the
bone and sinew of the population, and all this without any
marked effect on the labour supply. Barbados has been
able to spare at short notice thousands of her workers

37

Panama

without the residue gaining in the slightest measure any
increase in wages which one might, not unnaturally,
expect to result from emigration on such wholesale lines.
It would be saying too much to assert that local enterprise
has in no measure been hampered by the exodus to the
Isthmus. Local enterprise has been hampered ; in some
cases it has been extensively hampered ; there can be
no doubt about that ; but judging the matter in the
light of the generally accepted doctrine, 'the greatest
good for the largest number,' emigration to Panama has
been to Barbados as great a blessing as it would be a curse
to colonies differently circumstanced in respect to their
labour supply."*

In many ways this sketch is typical of the influence ot
the Panama Canal in the Making on the West Indian
islands as a whole. From many of the islands big
batches of coloured labourers have emigrated to Panama
to work for the American " bosses." Hardly any of them
have ever before been farther away from the shanty in
which they were born than a near neighbouring sugar,
cocoa, cotton or banana plantation. The vastness of the
Canal works, the wonderful performances by the machinery,
and the war which men are waging against Nature strike
wonder into the hearts of people who have travelled far
and seen many of man's most marvellous engineering
achievements. It is not at all surprising that every negro
who goes to play an active part in such an undertaking
soon feels that he is indispensable to the success of the
job ; and that just as soon he begins to dream of going
home for a holiday, when he has made a bit of money,

* The author is indebted to Mr. George H. H. McLellan, editor
of the Barbados Illustrated Weekly for permission to quote from
" Panama Money" in his book " Some Phases of Barbados Life."

38

The Spanish Main

and showing his friends what an important person he has
become — in his own estimation. " Mr. Cudjo Hogg
from Panama " may be met with in any of the islands ;
and in any of the islands may be seen signs of " Panama
Money " having been put to good use. But owing to the
density of the population of Barbados, and the ambitious
character of the Barbadian negro, it is in Barbados that
the signs of the influence of " Panama Money " are
particularly numerous and striking.

CHAPTER IX

THE SPANISH MAIN

THERE is a large crowd of steerage passengers on our ship
when she leaves Bridgetown. These newcomers are
Barbadians, who are going to Panama. The majority of
them are men, but some of the recruits for the Canal
labour force are taking a wife and family with them.
The party has reserved quarters on the lower deck. A
few of the darkies have provided themselves with a
hammock, but most of them have brought a deck chair,
in which lounging accommodation is afforded by a gaudy
piece of carpet. Their clothes are made after a Western
fashion, but suggest an Oriental love of colour without
any of the good taste in finery which is common among
Eastern races. However, a darkie in workaday costume
generally looks picturesque in this sunny part of the
world.

At Port of Spain, in Trinidad, our next port of call,
we make the acquaintance of East Indians. These people
are quite different from the aboriginal Indians of America ;
they are natives of India, belonging to what is commonly

39

Panama

known as the "coolie " class, who come to Trinidad to work
on the sugar and cocoa plantations. Their passage is paid,
and they are employed under a system that is very much
like apprenticeship. When they have served their time as
indentured labourers they are under no further obligation
to the planter. A few of the coolies have re-emigrated
from Trinidad to Panama ; but they are not, as a rule,
sufficiently muscular for the Canal work. However, we
shall see some East Indians among the motley population
of the Canal Zone. The women will be wearing their
national costume of pretty draperies, nose rings, silver
anklets and numerous bangles, as is the custom in
Trinidad ; but the men will have discarded their draperies
for trousers and a vest.

A short drive through the country around Port of
Spain gives us some idea of the luxuriance of tropical
vegetation. But it is not until our good ship has carried
us out to sea again that we begin to understand why this
part of the world is so famous for its beauty. In form,
the scenery of Trinidad is a fair sample of West Indian
grandeur ; in richness of clothing it is typically tropical.

In making her way from Port of Spain through the
Gulf of Paria into the Caribbean Sea, the steamer hugs the
shore of Trinidad, thereby affording us a series of magni-
ficent views — mountains of volcanic formation, jungle-
clad hills, palm groves, wooded valleys, plantation-
bedecked plains, all basking in the sunshine beneath a
gloriously blue sky.

Presently we notice there is land almost as close to the
other side of the ship. Trinidad was once part of the
mainland ; we are now in the neighbourhood in which
volcanic disturbances isolated a peninsular portion of
Venezuela, and the little islands to the west of Trinidad

40

The Spanish Main

are the remains of the link. Only a few miles to the
west of this island blockade is the coast of Venezuela,
hence the part of the Gulf of Paria which we have now
reached is almost completely land-locked. The straits
which give access to the Caribbean Sea are called the
Bocas del Dragone, meaning Dragon's Mouths. It was
through one of these mouths, perhaps the very one we
are now entering, that Columbus sailed soon after his
discovery of Trinidad ; and our ship is steering a similar
course to that which helped the famous explorer to find the
South American continent. As we emerge into the Carib-
bean Sea the shore of the Paria Peninsula comes into view
— we are getting a peep at the Venezuelan district in which
Columbus first set foot on the mainland of the New World.

For the remainder of the journey our route lies along
the coast of the Spanish Main, past Venezuela and
Colombia, and by way of the north coast of the Isthmus
of Panama to Colon. We are on the threshold of a
theatre in which have been enacted many of the most
thrilling dramas in the world's history — things that are
supposed to have happened in imaginary stories of adven-
ture are tame in comparison with the things that actually
happened on this New World stage. A few of the actors
are remembered by name, others merely as the " Spaniards,"
the " Portuguese," the " Indians," or the " English " ; and
some are spoken of as great explorers or mighty con-
querors, whilst others are dubbed bloodthirsty pirates or
savage heathen. Differences of nationality and religion
have led some critics to bid us believe one man was a
villain and others to assure us that same man was a hero ;
but innumerable facts tell us simply and clearly that the
bulk of the actors were among the bravest of all the brave
men that ever lived.

PA. 41 6

Panama

Whilst you are on these historic waters you will want
leisure and quiet for dreaming your own dreams. Very
soon you shall be free to conjure up pictures of Spanish
galleons sailing this sea, pirate boats chasing the treasure
vessels, the Spanish Fleet wreaking vengeance on the sea-
rovers, Hawkins coming along with a ship-load of slaves,
Drake on his way to plunder the " Treasure of the
World," Raleigh bound for El Dorado. But first I want
to make sure that you know a few important facts con-
cerning the development of Panama.

In 1501 Rodrigo de Bastida commanded an expedition
to the New World, and discovered that part of the coast
of the Spanish Main lying between Cape Tiburon, on the
Gulf of Darien, and the port to which Columbus gave the
name of Retrete on his arrival there a year later. Fol-
lowing in the wake of Bastida and Columbus came
Alonso de Ojeda, who began to colonize the country
round the Gulf of Darien, calling the district New
Andalusia. He founded a town, to which he gave the
name of San Sebastian, on the eastern shore of the Gulf.

Glowing accounts of the newly discovered world were
received by the Court of Spain, and most of these reports
were accompanied by samples of gold. So Spain gave the
name of <c Castilla del Oro," or " Castle of Gold " to the
region between Cape Gracias a Dios and the Gulf of
Darien, and sent over a governor together with several
hundred colonists. Nicuesa, first Governor of the Spanish
Main, founded the town of Nombre de Dios, in Panama.
Owing to the unhealthiness of the site and numerous
misadventures the Governor and most of the colonists
died.

A new expedition was sent to the mainland. It fitted
out at Hayti, and with it as a stowaway went a high-

42

The Spanish Main

spirited young rascal, named Balboa, who was running
away from several people to whom he owed money. When he
was discovered, hiding in a cask, the Commander threatened
to throw him overboard. But he had a good tale ready,
and a true one, too. He had already been to the Spanish
Main, with Bastida's expedition. The Commander decided
that it would be well to spare the life of such an experi-
enced stowaway ; and influenced by Balboa's stories of
the gold to be found in the Darien district he steered a
course for San Sebastian. When the expedition arrived
at this destination they found only the deserted ruins of
a town. Evidently the settlers had been obliged to flee
from the Indians. Balboa told his Commander that there
was a much better site for a settlement on the opposite
shore of the Gulf, and thither he piloted the expedition.
The Indians tried to drive them away, but were defeated,
and the white men founded a new town, to which they
gave the name of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien.
Then Balboa and the Commander disagreed, and the
quarrel resulted in the latter being clapped into irons and
sent back to Spain.

Balboa was now deputy-king of the Golden Castle.
With great zeal he set about the work of exploring the
interior. Under his leadership a party of picked men
plunged into the Bush ; they had to cut their way through
dense forest, or follow a trail which led to an Indian
encampment, where there were hundreds of warriors
armed with bows and arrows to dispute their way. At
last they reached the territory of a very powerful and
wealthy Indian chief, who received them peaceably ; his
eldest son took a great fancy to the c< white chief" and gave
Balboa some valuable presents and some very exciting
information. From his Indian friend Balboa learnt that

43

Panama

back of the mountains whose highest peaks could just be
seen in the far distance there was a sea, on the shores of
which dwelt a rich and powerful nation, who, like the
Spaniards, possessed ships with sails, and that about a
hundred miles from Darien there was a temple of gold
situated on the banks of a big river.

Balboa departed to look for the golden temple, but
after hunting for it in vain for some time he thought he
ought to return to headquarters, to see how the colonists
were faring. Upon arriving at Santa Maria he found his
services were badly needed to frustrate a widespread
Indian plot for driving the white men out of the land.
Balboa did not wait to be attacked ; he at once made
war on the Indians, who were taken by surprise and
defeated. Soon after he had given the natives this
further proof of the white man's power, reinforcements
arrived from Spain, bringing to him from the King a
commission as Captain-General de la Antigua. Balboa
now decided to lead an expedition southwards in quest of
the sea about which his Indian friend had told him.

CHAPTER X

THE SPANISH MAIN (continued)

IN quest of the sea on the other side of the mountains of
Darien, Balboa sailed from Santa Maria del Antigua on
the ist of September (old calendar reckoning), 1513,
taking with him 190 of his own men, some Indians and
some dogs. Five days later the expedition landed, and,
with Indian guides to lead the way, plunged into the
Bush to head for the mountains. On the 8th of Septem-
ber they arrived at the camp of an Indian chief who cheered

44

The Spanish Main

them with the assurance that there was a big ocean on the
other side of the mountains, gave them some magnificent
gold ornaments which he said came from places on that
ocean, and offered to see them well on their way towards
their goal.

The Spaniards continued their march on the 2Oth of
September, and so rough was the road that in four days
they only advanced thirty miles. Then they reached a
large Indian camp, whose chief showed fight ; in the
battle that took place the Spaniards were hard pressed
before they gained the victory. From the conquered foe
they learnt that they were at the foot of the last mountain
to be climbed before they would behold the sea for which
they were searching — we can imagine how eagerly they
must have set forth to scale the slope. As they gained
the summit, on the morning of the 26th of September,
there were joyous cries of " The sea " — the white man
had discovered the Pacific Ocean. When they reached
the coast Balboa, carrying the Spanish flag, waded knee-
deep into the water and proclaimed the ocean, together
with the countries bounded by it, the property of his
King. The gulf in which this ceremony took place was
called after San Miguel ; the name of " South Sea " was
given to the newly-discovered waters as a whole because
they lay to the south of the Isthmus of Panama, and
it was a long time before the name was changed to Pacific
Ocean.

Balboa sent off a small company of his men in canoes
to explore the coast. He led a party which embarked for
a voyage on the open sea ; this bold little band of ex-
plorers discovered a group of islands where pearls were
so plentiful that the oars used in the native canoes were
encrusted with them. Balboa gave the name of <c Pearl

45

Panama

Archipelago " to these islands. After collecting a rich
store of pearls and as much gold as he could plunder,
the discoverer of the South Sea made his way back to
Darien.

The next year there arrived at Santa Maria del Antigua
one Pedrarias, who had been sent out by the King of
Spain as Governor of Darien. With him came a body of
2,000 picked Spaniards to uphold his authority. Soon
after Pedrarias took the reins Balboa set forth once more
to look for the Temple of Gold ; after a long and fruitless
search he returned to Darien and obtained the Governor's
consent to another South Sea expedition. But all the
time Pedrarias was helping to equip that expedition he
was plotting to ruin Balboa. The Spaniards had now
heard several rumours as to the existence of a great Indian
Empire, which was said to be flourishing in a country
that bordered on the recently discovered sea. Pedrarias
felt sure that Balboa was bent on discovering that Empire,
and jealousy made him anxious that the explorer should
not win fresh laurels. The expedition got away before
Pedrarias was able to perfect his scheme for bringing
about its commander's downfall. For the second time
Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama, and visited the
Pearl Islands. But misfortune drove him back to San
Miguel. Here the expedition received orders from the
Governor to return ; it was to escort Balboa back as a
prisoner, who was charged with being a traitor to his
King and country.

Balboa was given a trial, but only, apparently, for the
sake of appearances. He defiantly denied the charges
brought against him, but was allowed neither time nor
opportunity to prove his innocence. By the evidence of
the Governor's allies he was sent to the scaffold, in 1517.

The Spanish Main

Two years later Pedrarias founded the city of old
Panama, on the Pacific coast, and in 1521 he made that
city his headquarters, taking with him a large number of
the Darien colonists.

About this time Cortes completed his conquest of the
" golden " Mexico, thereby breaking up and despoiling
the great New World Empire of the Aztec Indians. His
countrymen in Panama were anxious to outrival him in
fame and wealth — and was it not said that there was a
flourishing Indian Empire in a country to the south ? In
1525 Pizarro, who had been one of Balboa's lieutenants,
sailed from Old Panama in search of another Mexico, and
discovered the " golden " Peru.

The conquest of Peru by Pizarro rapidly made the city
of Old Panama one of the most important places on the
Spanish Main.- It became the treasure depot for all the
wealth of the West coast — gold and other valuables were
poured into that depot to be sorted for shipment. To
facilitate the transport of the treasure to the Atlantic
coast a road was made between Old Panama and Nombre
de Dios, then the principal port on the Atlantic coast of
the Isthmus. The road crossed the Chagres River at
Cruces, and for part of the way, at any rate, was paved, as
is shown by present-day remains.

A little later, traffic was carried on by pack-mule-train
between Panama and Cruces, and small vessels sailed
between that river-port and Nombre de Dios by way of
the Chagres River. Towards the close of the sixteenth
century Portobelo became the chief port on the Atlantic
side of the Isthmus, owing to its superiority as^a haven.

Onwards to the middle of the nineteenth century the
Isthmus was the scene of a series of exciting fights ; we
will talk of the influence of arms on the history of Panama

47

Panama

when we visit the sites of the principal engagements.
The opening up of some gold-mines in the Darien
district, and the provision of primitive facilities for trans-
porting treasure across country were the chief activities
making for Isthmian development until Panama and
Colon were connected by railway in 1855.

CHAPTER XI

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE CANAL ZONE IN 1912

THE Royal Mail steamer on which we have journeyed to
Colon anchors alongside the Company's own wharf. For
anyone who has the interests of the Old Country at heart,
a British wharf as an outstanding feature of this important
harbour, on the threshold of the Atlantic entrance to the
Panama Canal, is a cheery sight. A merchantman flying
the French colours, a steamer on which a German band
is playing u In the Shadows,'' and one of the fine banana-
and-passenger ships of the United Fruit Company are the
British liner's near neighbours in the big docks.

In a small bay lie a fleet of plebeian steamboats, which
make omnibus journeys to the little trading centres on
the neighbouring coast, and a shoal of Indian canoes or
u cayukas " as they are called. Coloured folk are swarming
aboard one of the steamboats, whose chimney is belching
forth smoke. Indians and coloured folk are trafficking in
the cocoanuts, ivory nuts, and bananas with which the
cayukas are laden.

Colon strikes us as being in the growing stage between
a village and a provincial town. On the quayside of the
city, and a few hundred yards from our landing-stage,
there is a square bedecked with clumps of the variegated

Impressions of the Canal Zone in 1912

shrubs called " crotons " and with an array of majestic
palms, which carry their plume-like heads high in the air.
The main street, which is neither broad nor narrow, runs
past this square on its way to the rail way- station ; it is
bordered on one side by moderate-sized shops, on the
other by an open-air market, office bungalows, and ware-
houses mostly of the shed type. At the back of the main
street lies a network of little shops and houses. Verandas
and dilapidation are the chief characteristics of the build-
ings. Fascinating as is the heart of the little city, we find
it a welcome relief to emerge from a stifling atmosphere
on to the seaside parade. In the fresh-air neighbourhood
of the sea- front are the commodious bungalows where live
the officials who represent foreign interests, together with
a few of the superior class Panamanians. Having sampled
the best accommodation that Colon can offer her visitors,
we are pleased to find a first-class hotel nearing completion
in this neighbourhood.

The principal needs of the inhabitants seem to be fruit,
iced drinks, shiny boots, and lottery tickets. Amidst the
attractive display in the numerous open-fronted fruit-shops
are choice tropical products, some of which we recognize
as relations of the expensive luxuries to be seen in the very
superior fruiterers' establishments at home ; but in spite
of the aristocratic note struck by pines, avocado pears, and
suchlike southern dainties, the general appearance of the
Colon fruit- shops reminds us of a costermonger's barrow,
which has been stocked from Covent Garden by some
smart <c Bill," who has the showman's gift for arranging
an exhibition. Apple-chains seem to be the favourite
means of decoration. Bananas and plantains, as we are
not at all surprised to find, are the commonest of the
products on sale ; but the great " hands " of them, that

PA. 49 7

Panama

are hanging from roofs and walls, are a somewhat novel
sight. The peanut stove, which is so often to be seen on
the footpath just outside the fruit-shops, makes us think
of the familiar street scene at home, which is provided by
the roast-chestnut seller. The whistle of the peanut stove,
as it lets off steam, is quite a musical street cry.

The swinging of many a wicket gives us peep after peep
into well-patronized bars, which are gaily adorned with
flags and furnished caf£- fashion with little tables. Hawkers
compete with the bars for the custom of the thirsty popu-
lace. The brightly painted handcarts which they take
about the streets are of the kind commonly used by Italian
vendors of ice-cream. These travelling bars are equipped
with a few glasses, a bucket of water, a dishcloth, and
numerous bottles containing very highly coloured liquids.
The mottoes which straggle above the shelves suggest
that the Panamanians have not a very keen sense of
humour — as, for instance, " We trust in God." The
barrow bearing this device reminds me of the native cook
at a planter's bungalow in Malay, who wrote in letters of
icing, " Prepare to meet thy God " on the cake which he
made as a Christmas present for his master.

In almost every street a lottery-ticket hawker, usually a
woman, has a pitch. The lottery is a regular weekly
excitement ; in the interests of fair play the drawing
of the numbers is done by a little daughter of the people.

The " people," or masses, include the majority of folk
born on the Isthmus outside the bounds of the Canal
Zone ; they are of mixed descent, the principal contri-
butors to the stock being Spaniards, Indians, and Negroes.
Pure-bred, or nearly pure-bred, Spaniards make up the
small aristocratic class of Panamanians.

Although, geographically speaking, Colon is situated in

5°

Impressions of the Canal Zone in 1912

the Canal Zone, politically it is Panamanian territory.
But America has a reserved quarter in the city, and also
enjoys the right to superintend the government of the
republican city as regards matters — such as sanitation, or
the maintenance of order during any political crisis —
which have any bearing on the interests of the Canal.
The same arrangement holds good for the republican city
of Panama.

In Cristobal, the American quarter of Colon, we get a
first peep at the mosquito-proof houses which have helped
even more than mammoth machinery in the making
of the Canal. In appearance they closely resemble
a meat safe. Exceptional utility could alone excuse the
exceptional ugliness of these human habitations. Only a
thoroughly practical " boss," with the dogged determina-
tion to carry through a gigantic job at any cost, and keenly
alive to the fact that the prime factor of success in such
an undertaking is a healthy labour force, could have been
sufficiently inspired by courage to erect such hideous
buildings for the housing of all his employees, from the
commanding officer to the negro navvy. The swarms of
mosquitoes which inoculated the French employees in the
Isthmus with yellow fever and malaria were as powerful
an agent as financial mismanagement in wrecking the
Franco -Panamanian Canal enterprise. When the Ameri-
cans took over the work, they at once organized a Sanitary
Revolution. The rest of the civilized world scoffed, or
said, " Very plucky, but it can't be done," for the Canal
Zone was then a renowned death-trap. But Jonathan
Boss had learnt much about the wily and pestilential
mosquito during his war with Cuba. Convinced that this
insect was his most fearsome foe in the Isthmus, he lost
no time in waging war on the mosquito throughout the

Panama

Canal route. By tactics such as are employed in isolating
valuable property within the zone of a great fire, the little
beasts' means of communication with the immediate
region of the Canal route were cut off ; mosquitoes cannot
fly far without a rest, so around places from which it was
particularly desirable to keep them away, the Bush was
cleared up to boundaries that could be relied on to pull
them up on their journey from the interior before they
could get a chance of doing mischief among the Canal-
makers. Drastic measures were taken to exterminate
mosquitoes throughout the region where the Canal-makers
were to work and live. All the houses in Colon and
Panama were thoroughly disinfected. Swamps, pools, and
suchlike breeding-places beloved by mosquitoes were
drained or filled up, rivers and streams were coated with
oil. And all the houses erected for the working force
were mosquito-proofed with wire gauze. The work of
sanitation included the establishment of hospitals for the
care of the sick and wounded. Also, with a view to
securing and maintaining better health conditions in the
cities of Colon and Panama and along the line of the
Canal, numerous municipal improvements were under-
taken, such as the construction of reservoirs for furnishing
a good water-supply, sewerage, pavements, and a system
of roads. Owing to the skilful and persevering efforts of
the Department of Sanitation of the Isthmian Canal Com-
mission, the Panama Canal region is now renowned as one
of the healthiest districts in the world.

As we leave Colon by train to journey across the
Isthmus, we say to ourselves that now we are going to
see the Canal. We are in the parlour car, whose every
comfortable arm-chair is a window-seat. Next to our
compartment is the hospital car ; through the open doors

52

Impressions of the Canal Zone in 1912

of the corridor we get a good view of its spacious, well-
equipped interior. There are no invalids on board,
but nurses and ambulances are ready for duty, and the
train will stop at every station en route to Panama in case
there should be any patients for the hospital in that city
— accidents will happen in the carrying out of any big
engineering job, but in spite of the many dangers that
threaten the Canal-makers there have been remarkably
few catastrophes since the Americans took over the work.

A few minutes after leaving Colon we are in the Bush.
It seems as though we must be dreaming, so curious is the
contrast between the highly-civilized train in which we
are travelling and the wild luxuriance of the country
through which it is carrying us. Vainly we search for a
sign of the Canal amidst a procession of bright-hued
flowers, masses of giant leaves, and creeper-draped
shrubs.

Presently our attention is beguiled from the view
outside by a negro in smart uniform, who is walking the
train with refreshments ; his business-like manner sug-
gests an American training, and there is a very pronounced
American accent in the voice that invites us to buy
" candies." We are hesitating over a purchase with the
object of studying the salesman when the train pulls up,
and we hear voices calling " Gatun." Promise of new ex-
citements makes us instantly turn our faces to the window.
" Gatun " — now we shall certainly get a good view of the
Canal, we think. We see one negro woman balancing on
her head a basket piled up with clean clothes ; another
squatting on the ground alongside some bananas ; and
some shanties on which are written in rickety letters
" Billiard Saloon," "Barber's Shop," "Cool Drinks/
Our eyes travel uphill to a little town — it is typical of

53

Panama

the mosquito-proofed centres of civilization that have
sprung up at close intervals all along the Canal line. We
are at a right distance away for getting a clear and com-
prehensive view of the bungalows. They are all standing
on stilts ; the large ones, when viewed separately, are
examples of the meat-safe style, the little ones remind us
of dog-kennels and fowl-houses. As a group, the build-
ings make us think of a menagerie.

But where are the great locks and mountainous dam
with which everyone associates the name of Gatun ? We
look out of the windows on the opposite side of the car-
riage, but the only sign we can see of such wonder-works
is a stretch of massive concrete wall, which rises but a few
feet above the ground.

From the clearing at Gatun the train plunges into forest
lands. We know that from Colon to Gatun we were being
hauled up an incline ; and we can see that we are in the midst
of mountains. How is it that this high land is very swampy,
when the low land through which we passed was quite
dry ? For mile after mile swamps are a feature of the
landscape ; and there are large tracts of forest that seem
doomed to be submerged — the undergrowth is in the last
stage of drowning, fast withering little trees are standing
trunk-deep in water, among the giant trees there is many
an ashen skeleton.

From the half-way station the train moves out back-
wards, as though it was going to return to Colon ; soon
we are discovering that it has manoeuvred its way to a
station on the opposite side of the valley, whence it once
more travels onwards. We get a peep at an embankment
of red-gold sand, which gags the mouth of a ravine, and at
a magnificent panorama of mountains. Then the train
plunges once more into dense tropical jungle. A few

54

Impressions of the Canal Zone in 1912

miles ahead we have an experience that is in the nature of
an adventure — on a rough-timber bridge, that has every
appearance of having been knocked together for temporary
service, the train crosses a wide and very deep ravine.
Although it very obligingly crawls across the chasm, we
only have time for a sweeping glance at the fascinating
scenes which have suddenly come into view. To the right,
the chasm is blocked by two pairs of giant, fortress-like
gates, which form the back of a huge, double well. Mas-
sive side- walls and a dividing wall of concrete reach from
the well floor to the mountain summit. On the steel
frames of the two pairs of gates which are being erected
at the front of the well numbers of men are at work ; they
look like tiny dwarfs. To the left, we get a long vista
of the ravine, in whose depths little people, toy trains, and
model machines seem to be playing pranks with dirt.

A little way beyond the bridge we meet a train-load of
labourers ; the jovial crowd of Spaniards, Italians, and
coloured folk with which the open cars are packed might
well be a beanfeast party. A few minutes later there
dashes past us a long train of trucks, which are laden with
masses of rock and loose dirt. And shortly after that
diversion we are alighting at Panama station.

You are disappointed — in crossing the Isthmus you
expected to see the Canal from beginning to end of its
course ; you are thinking that, although the journey
through the Bush has been a novel entertainment, it has
not afforded you a single glimpse of the channel of the
famous waterway, and that the one good view it revealed
to you of some gigantic locks, which did not seem to have
any connection with an artificial channel, cannot persuade
you to believe that all the towns you have passed are
peopled with Canal-makers.

55

Panama

You will be very surprised to hear that you have seen
a great deal of the two most wonderful sections of the
Panama Canal — the Gatun Lake and the Culebra Cut.
Those mysterious swamps among the highlands were the
Gatun Lake in the making by the gradual rise of the
barricaded River Chagres. That great chasm over which
the train passed was not, as it looked, a natural ravine,
but the big ditch, known as the Culebra Cut, which has
been hewn through the giant bodies of rocky mountains.

The train journey across the Isthmus only takes about
two hours. Whilst the Canal is in course of construction,
anyone who has the good fortune to visit the Isthmus
should make that journey at least half a dozen times.
And excursions within the actual channel of the Canal,
such as we are going to indulge in, will emphasize the
attractions of a train trip that can afford numerous views
of country which will soon be submerged, of towns that
will speedily be cleared away from the track of the rising
waters, and of scenes in the everyday life of the Canal-
makers, most of whom will shortly be going back to the
different parts of the world whence they came to work on
the cc big job."

CHAPTER XII

IN THE DAYS OF THE BUCCANEERS

As the railway journey between Colon and Panama is so
interesting, cheap, and comfortable, we shall make our
headquarters alternately at which ever of the two cities
happens to be the more convenient starting-place from
which to proceed with our programme.

We are now going to make some excursions that will
help us to understand the general condition of the

56

OUTSIDE A CHURCH IN THE MODERN CITY OF PANAMA.

In the Days of the Buccaneers

Isthmus of Panama when the Canal was started by the
French ; during these trips we shall talk about the history
of the Isthmus onwards from the time when Old Panama
city became one of the richest and most famous places on
the Spanish Main, owing to its favourable situation as a
distribution port for the wealth of the west coast of South
America.

On the first of these expeditions we are setting forth
from Colon by launch, and our destination is Portobelo,
which has many historic associations, and some ruins to
carry us back to the days of long ago. Among the
memorable and tragic events which happened at Portobelo
was the death of the greatest of Elizabethan sailors, Sir
Francis Drake.

Although contemporary European Powers were envious
of the growing wealth of Spain, no nation challenged the
supreme power of the New World to prove whether she
could retain by might the lands which she claimed by a
" find 'ems, keeps 'em " right of title. But numerous
adventurers, acting individually, tried either to relieve
Spain of some of her plunder, or to share in the trade
with the rich Spanish Colonies. As the Spaniards claimed
the sole right of trading with the whole of America,
except Brazil, which belonged to Portugal, they regarded
as pirates any foreigners who dared to sail in New World
waters. Two of the principal adventurers whose exploits
undermined the power of Spain as an Empire builder
were Francis Drake and Henry Morgan.

Francis Drake, who was born in 1540 near Tavistock,
in Devonshire, was the son of very poor people. At an
early age he was apprenticed to the master of a small
coasting vessel. In 1565 he sailed to the Spanish Main,
and the experience fired him with the ambition to make a

PA. 57 8

Panama

bid for fortune in a part of the world where there were
boundless opportunities for daring exploits that might
lead to wealth and glory. In 1567 he sailed under
Hawkins, who was making an enormous income by
trading in slaves with the West Indies. But at last Spain
managed to wreak vengeance on that prosperous foreign
competitor in the slave traffic. Hawkins was attacked by
the Spanish Fleet, and badly beaten. Two of his smaller
vessels managed to escape to England ; of one of these
Drake was in command.

But although Drake determined to have nothing more
to do with the slave trade, he busied himself with new
schemes for winning treasure from the Spaniards. Strictly
speaking, he was now filled with the desire to become a
pirate ; but as King Philip of Spain persecuted Protestants,
Drake considered that by plundering the Catholic
Monarch's rich colonies he would not only be doing him-
self a good turn, but would be serving England and
championing the Protestant cause. In 1572 he sailed,
with two small vessels, as captain of a pirate band which
was bent on sacking Old Panama. Upon reaching
Nombre de Dios the expedition was attacked by the
Spaniards. During the conflict Drake burned Portobelo,
and captured and destroyed many Spanish ships. A
view of the Pacific, which he obtained by climbing a tall
tree, filled him with an eager longing to sail an English
ship on its waters, but before he had time to set about
realizing this ambition he was seriously wounded. His
men carried him to the boats, and the expedition escaped
to England. Drake was enthusiastically welcomed home
as a hero.

In 1577 Drake started on another voyage to the New
World, taking with him five small vessels. He sailed

58

In the Days of the Buccaneers

down the east coast of South America and through the
Straits of Magellan. But as he entered the Pacific a
terrible gale arose, and when the storm abated his ship
was alone on the strange waters — the other four vessels
had either foundered or were making for home. Drake
sailed along the western coast of South America, plundering
as he went, and securing much valuable booty. Leaving
Cape Francisco he sailed homewards across the Pacific,
and after a long and adventurous voyage he reached
England, thereby achieving the feat of circumnavigating
the globe. • Queen Elizabeth led the applause with which
he was greeted home ; she visited him on board his ship
and knighted him. The magnificent welcome he received
was inspired not only by natural appreciation of pluck
and national pride in a great sailor, but by the patriotism
that calls for -an outburst of thanksgiving at the discovery
of the right man to tackle an enemy at a critical period —
the fearsome Spain, with her formidable fleet, was
menacing England.

All of you, of course, are familiar with the story of how
Drake was sent to Cadiz to stop the preparations which
Spain was making to invade England ; of how in one
night he burnt, sank, and captured so many of the
enemy's vessels that the fleet had to postpone sailing,
thereby giving England considerable time for making
further preparations to defend her shores ; and of how,
when the " Invincible " Armada eventually appeared off
the Lizard, Drake calmly finished playing a game of
bowls on Plymouth Hoe, then, boarding his ship, led
the British fleet to the victory which made England
" Mistress of the Seas."

In 1595 Drake again set sail for South America. Once
more he landed on the Isthmus of Panama ; this time the

59

Panama

Spaniards who attacked him killed so many of his men
that he decided to retreat. He reached his ship safely,
but fell ill with dysentery, and died, off Portobelo, on
January 28, 1596. His body was placed in a leaden
coffin and committed to the deep.

When England was encouraged by the ambitious Queen
Elizabeth to carry on the work of Empire-building that
had been begun by the Cabots, the policy for colonial
expansion was more in favour of founding new colonies
in America than of fighting for the possession of the
Spanish colonies. To the north of Mexico Spain had not
settled in any of the districts on the Atlantic coast ; whilst
Drake was playing pirate in South America, Sir Humphrey
Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were doing pioneer work
in laying the foundations of Canada and the United
States. And although Drake, transformed by patriotism
and opportunity from a buccaneer into a highly respect-
able Admiral, undermined the power of Spain, his country-
men of his own and succeeding ages did not make any
concerted attempt to conquer the Spanish-American
colonies by force of arms. They zealously pursued the
policy of establishing British colonies in North America,
foreseeing, doubtless, that Spain's power in the New
World would naturally dwindle, and finally flicker out,
when her colonies realized that she was unable to keep a
firm hold on them, and when they consequently began to
secede and to quarrel amongst themselves.

But although England did not trouble Spain in South
America, several Englishmen added to her discomfiture
during the seventeenth century by their piratical exploits.
The most daring and successful of these buccaneers was
Henry Morgan.

Morgan cared nothing for glory, but was game for any

60

In the Days of the Buccaneers

adventure that might bring him money. Morgan and
his pirate band had their headquarters at Jamaica. Thence
they set out in 1668 to plunder Portobelo as a first step
towards looting Old Panama. A good idea of the booty
they were after, and of the difficulties that had to be
encountered, may be gathered from even one short
extract from a history of the buccaneers' exploits, as
recorded by one of the pirates :

u Portobelo is judged to be the strongest place that
the King of Spain possesses in all the West Indies,
excepting two, that is to say, Havana and Cartagena.
Here are two castles, almost inexpugnable, that defend
the city, being situated at the entry of the port ; so that
no ship or boat can pass without permission. The
garrison consists of three hundred soldiers, and the town
constantly inhabited by four hundred families, more or
less. The merchants dwell not here, but only reside for
a while, when the galleons come or go from Spain ; by
reasons of the unhealthiness of the air, occasioned by
certain vapours, that exhale from the mountains. Not-
withstanding, their chief warehouses are at Portobelo,
howbeit their habitations be all the year long at Panama,
whence they bring the plate upon mules at such times as
the fair begins and when the ships, belonging to the
Company of Negroes, arrive here to sell slaves.'*

The pirates landed on the Isthmus of Panama at a spot
not far from Portobelo, and under cover of night they
surrounded the castle near the city. The commander of
this castle and his soldiers offered a stubborn resistance,
but were at last obliged to surrender ; the pirates then
locked the garrison in the castle and blew up prison and
prisoners. Next they fell on the city, and although the
brave Governor put up a splendid defence, they eventually

61

Panama

possessed themselves of his castle, too ; whereupon they
fell to work at pillaging, feasting, torturing their prisoners
to find out where treasure had been hidden, and destroying
property. The President of Panama marched with a body
of soldiers to the relief of Portobelo, but the pirates com-
pelled the Spaniards to retreat. The miserable citizens
of Portobelo then unearthed their valuables, and made up
the rich ransom which Morgan demanded of them. The
buccaneers sailed off to divide the spoil and make merry
in Jamaica.

From the historic ruins of Portobelo we make our way
back to Colon, to follow the adventures of Morgan and
his men when they paid a second visit to the Isthmus,
in 1670.

By a launch-trip on the River Chagres we visit Fort San
Lorenzo where the pirates in crossing the Isthmus would
in all probability have been forced by the desperately
brave Spaniards to retreat, but for an accident that set fire
to the castle.

Again we cross the Isthmus from Colon to Panama.
The train frequently skirts the route by which the pirates
had to fight their way through the Bush, and in a starving
condition encounter the Spaniards and Indians who lay in
wait for them.

From Panama we take a five miles' drive to the site of
Old Panama, where Morgan and his fellow-buccaneers
achieved their greatest success, in 1671, by setting fire to
and sacking one of the wealthiest cities on the Spanish
Main. Among the existing ruins of this historic site are
the walls of the Cathedral, an old bridge, catacombs, wells,
bits of the ancient city's walls, and the tower of the Castle
of St. Jerome.

Two years later the city of Panama was rebuilt on the

62

In the Days of the Buccaneers

site which it still occupies. The modern city reminds us
of Colon, but is on a much larger scale.

The provinces of Panama and Veragua that composed
the Isthmus up to the beginning of the nineteenth century
were among the last of the Spanish- American colonies to
throw off the Spanish yoke. In 1821 they secured their
independence from Spain and became part of the republic
of Colombia, or, as it was then called, New Granada.

In the middle of the nineteenth century the Isthmus
regained, through the discovery of gold in California,
some of the importance that it lost with the fall of Old
Panama and the passing of the palmy days of Spanish
occupation. Californian gold was taken to Panama City,
and thence by pack-mule train across the Isthmus for ship-
ment. Numbers of desperadoes of various nationalities
were attracted to the locality of the trans-isthmian route,
and many travellers were robbed and murdered. The
rush of goldseekers to California, the development of
the carrying trade across the Isthmus of Panama, and
the lack of safe and quick means of transit to meet the
demands of such a trade, led some American capitalists
to bargain with Colombia for the right to build a railway
from Colon to Panama. The railroad, as I have already
told you, was opened in 1855.

Apart from the history of the Panama Canal, there is
still another important date to be remembered in con-
nection with the history of the Isthmus. On November 3,
1903, the Panamanians succeeded in putting an end to
Colombian control of their country, and issued the declara-
tion of independence of the Republic of Panama.

Panama

CHAPTER XIII

THE FRENCH FIASCO

As early as 1581 a survey was made with a view to
piercing a waterway through the Isthmus of Panama.
Between that date and 1875 several schemes for the con-
struction of an Isthmian Canal were discussed by Spain,
Colombia, France, and the United States, and, as an out-
come of numerous surveys, various routes were suggested.

In 1875, France, encouraged by the triumphant com-
pletion of the Suez Canal under the direction of De
Lesseps, again became ambitious to pierce the Isthmus of
Panama. A Promotion Company was formed for the pur-
pose of drawing up a Panama Canal scheme, and obtaining
from the Colombian Government the necessary grant of
land, and all such privileges as might seem necessary to a
successful carrying out of the enterprise in view. After
lengthy negotiations, an agreement was concluded whereby
this company received numerous concessions, such as the
grant of a zone of land and the exclusive right to construct
a canal across the Isthmus, on condition that, onwards
from a given date, Colombia should be entitled to a fixed
share of the income derived from the canal, that the general
route of the canal should be determined by an international
commission, and that the canal should always be a neutral
right of way so that in case of war merchant vessels and
passenger boats could pass through unmolested.

An international commission, known as the International
Scientific Congress, met at Paris on May 15, 1879, unc^er
the presidency of Count de Lesseps. As a result of dis-
cussions that extended over a fortnight, the Conference

The French Fiasco

came to the conclusion that a sea-level canal should be
constructed from Limon Bay to the Bay of Panama,

The Promotion Company then transferred its rights and
privileges to the Panama Canal Company, which was char-
tered under the laws of France. De Lesseps was given
control of the new company. One of his first acts was
to purchase enough shares in the Panama Railroad Com-
pany to give his company the controlling interest in that
corporation ; this was a very shrewd move, seeing that it
might be found necessary to take the Panama Canal across
territory owned by the Railroad Company, and that the
Canal Company would certainly benefit by being able to
make a first claim on the services of the trains for the
transport of machinery, materials, labourers and stores.

On December 30, 1879, ^e Lesseps, who was then
seventy-seven years old, arrived at Colon as head of a sur-
veying party that included the chief engineers of the
Dutch canals and waterways, and several famous mining
engineers and civil engineers. Colon gave De Lesseps
and his distinguished assistants a right royal welcome. A
reception committee, consisting of delegates from the
State Assembly and leading citizens, was on the quay to
meet the French steamer which brought the illustrious
guests. On board, where preparations had been made to
receive the reception committee, there was much speechi-
fying, toasting and bandying of compliments, whilst the
pick of Panamanian musicians played stirring tunes, and
the crowd on the wharfside found a hundred and one
ways of giving vent to their enthusiasm. In the even-
ing the town was illuminated, and a display of fireworks
was given.

De Lesseps was at work early the next morning. He
made an examination of the harbour, and sought local
PA 65 9

Panama

information as to the direction and force of the most
boisterous winds in that part of the world ; then on a care-
fully prepared chart he marked the location of a break-
water and the probable entrance to the great Isthmian
Canal. He and his party boarded the midday trans-
Isthmian train. Panama City was in gala dress for the
reception of the venerable hero of Suez, who was officially
welcomed at the station of the republican capital in the
name of the sovereign State of Panama, and escorted to
the principal hotel by a military guard of honour. On
January i, 1880, De Lesseps made an examination of the
country in which would be situated the Pacific terminus
of the canal route he had planned by the help of the
records of previous surveys which had been supplied to
the Paris Congress. Within a few days he had definitely
decided on the general line of route. Meanwhile he had
won the complete confidence of the Panamanians by the
force of his personality, and the convincing manner in
which he gave very simple, explanatory solutions of the
supreme difficulties which he took the greatest pains to
emphasize. There were high mountains in his way — by
the sinking of wells, which could be charged with explo-
sives that would tear up large areas of rock at each dis-
charge, they would be prepared for transit to the trains
that would be waiting to clear them off his track. The
River Chagres was in his way — true, it was easier to
remove mountains than to alter the course of a river, but
the engineering world had long ceased to regard the con-
struction of dams and diversion channels as experiments
in the science and art of changing Nature's designs.

On January 10, 1880, De Lesseps took a large party
to the neighbourhood of Culebra, to witness a momentous
event. A mine had been laid in the mountain side. The

66

The French Fiasco

seven-year-old daughter of De Lesseps performed the
ceremony of applying the electric spark whereby a mighty
blast tore a huge mass of solid rock from its foundation,
and heralded the beginning of the great work of making
the Panama Canal.

De Lesseps toured the United States and Europe for
the purpose of inducing people to invest in the Panama
Canal Company. Owing to the attractive way in which
he introduced the Franco-Panama scheme to the public,
large numbers of people clamoured for shares, and France
would have had no difficulty at that stage of the proceed-
ings in obtaining twice as much money as she felt she
needed to get from outside contributors.

The route of the Franco-Panama Canal began at Folks
River, Cristobal-Colon, followed the valley of the Chagres
to Bas Obispo, passed through the Culebra mountains,
followed the valley of the Rio Grande to its mouth, and
went two miles out to sea in Panama Bay.

By the end of three years, De Lesseps and his staff had
collected a good deal of machinery and a three-thousand
strong labour force on the scene of operations ; also, the
work of excavating had been begun. But by this time
the labourers had considerably raised the original
scale of wages and were demanding still better pay,
and other unforeseen difficulties had cropped up to
hamper the organizers. By 1885 it was an open secret
that the Company could not complete the Canal in the
stipulated time or at the estimated cost, the newspapers
were crying out against the reckless extravagance which
was going on in the Canal Zone, and the public who had
invested in the enterprise were getting nervous. So,
when, in that year, De Lesseps applied for permission to
raise more funds by means of a lottery, the French

Panama

Government sent another eminent engineer to the Isthmus
to report on the situation. This expert emphatically an-
nounced that the amount of excavation which had yet to
be done to complete the proposed sea-level canal would,
under the best of economical management, cost a great
deal more money over and above the original estimate
than the public, in their present attitude to the enterprise,
would be likely to subscribe ; he recommended that new
plans should be got out for a canal with locks, which
would not require any alteration in route. De Lesseps
very reluctantly consented to the change. But there was
only a poor response to the appeal for further funds
which the French Government made, although very
attractive terms were offered to investors. By the end
of 1 8 8 8 the Company was obliged to go into liquidation,
and early in 1889 work on the Canal was suspended. An
official investigation of accounts showed that nearly
$235,000,000 ($1=45. 2d.) had been expended. De
Lesseps had estimated that the Canal could be completed
for a little over half that amount.

In 1894 the "New Panama Canal Company" was
formed in France, and Colombia extended the date limit
by which the waterway must be finished. In 1901 this
Company hinted at its willingness to transfer its assets to
the United States, who had been making various inquiries
with a view to obtaining sole control of any practicable
route for the construction of a canal between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans. A deal was carried through between
the New Panama Canal Company and the United States
in 1904, with the consent of Panama, which had now
become a separate republic. The United States paid the
French company the " bargain " price of $40,000,000 for
about 655,000 acres of Isthmian land, all the excavating

68

The French Fiasco

work that had been done, machinery, boats, buildings,
maps, records, and the Panama railroad. A treaty was
entered into between the United States and the Republic
of Panama, whereby the former were granted, together
with numerous other rights and privileges, the use,
occupation and control in perpetuity of a ten-miles wide
zone of territory, beginning three miles away from shore
in the Carribean Sea and extending across the Isthmus to
a boundary three miles out in the Pacific, excluding the
cities of Colon and Panama ; in return, the United States
guaranteed to maintain the independence of the Republic
of Panama, paid over a lump sum of $10,000,000, and
undertook to make an annual payment of $250,000
onwards from 1913.

From an international standpoint, the most important
clause in the agreement between the United States and
the Republic of Panama is one stipulating that the Canal
shall be neutral in perpetuity. In the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty between the United States and Great Britain
(1901), the neutrality condition, under which the objec-
tion by Great Britain to a canal constructed by the
United States was withdrawn, runs as follows :

" The Canal shall be free and open to the vessels of
commerce and of war of all nations on terms of entire
equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against
any such nation."

But the United States have shown a desire to interpret
the obligations of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty in a way
that would give them a commercial advantage over all
other nations ; arguing that the term " all nations " does
not include the United States, who have built the Canal,
they have proposed to exempt from the payment of tolls
for the use of the Canal all vessels engaged in the coastwise

Panama

trade of the United States. In this spring of 1913,
Americans are having heated arguments amongst them-
selves over the toll-payment question ; the keen business
instinct, which has found such an ingenius interpretation
of the term " all nations," is battling with a high sense of
national honour in the formation of American public
opinion as to the meaning of both the letter and the spirit
of the important compact under dispute. Hope runs
high that if Great Britain and the United States cannot
agree as to the meaning of the treaty between them
concerning the Panama Canal, the matter will be referred
to an international court of arbitration.

CHAPTER XIV

THE COMING OF THE AMERICANS

DURING the first two and a half years after the United
States undertook the construction of the Panama Canal,
they were busily engaged in making preparations for con-
struction work, and in discussing whether it would be
better to make a sea-level or lock type of waterway.

Owing to the great increase in size of modern ships as
compared with the largest ships that were in use, or being
built, when the French planned the Canal, America deter-
mined to construct a very much wider and deeper waterway
than the one that had been begun by her predecessors on
the Isthmus. But apart from the vast expenditure of
both time and money that would be involved by the
stupendous amount of excavation necessary in the con-
struction of a sea-level canal, there were some sound
scientific objections against that ideal type of canal to be
taken into account — notably, the tendency of Nature to

70

The Coming of the Americans

wreak vengeance by landslips when man interferes with
the equilibrium of Mother Earth by digging and blasting.
To the lock type of canal there is always the objection
that traffic is impeded and valuable time lost whilst ships
are being taken in turn through the locks. And there
were some very special local difficulties in connection with
the construction of a lock type canal for the Panama route.
The Chagres River, with its tributaries, must be used as
one of the principal sources of water-supply ; but up to
the point where the river would be required to feed
the canal, the waters of the appropriated section of its
course must be maintained at a given level, and in order
to subject the river to the service of the canal its course
must be altered. The variation of the rainfall in the
Chagres valley, and the sharp contrasts in the form of the
country, presented some very difficult problems in con-
nection with the control of the Chagres ; for instance,
the Americans had to face the disconcerting evidence of
statistics which gave the low-water surface of the Chagres
as one foot above mean sea-level at Bohio, forty- eight feet
above mean sea-level at Obispo, which is only thirteen
miles from Bohio, and ninety-five feet above mean sea-
level at Alhajuela, which is only eleven miles 'farther up
the valley ; and statistics which told of the river rising
over twenty-five feet in twenty-four hours at Gamboa.

On June 24, 1905, the President of the United
States appointed an International Board of Consulting
Engineers to report upon the type of canal which should
be adopted. On January 10, 1906, the Board presented
two reports : The first, or majority report, recommend-
ing a sea-level canal, was signed by eight members, five
of whom were foreign experts ; the minority report
favouring a lock canal at an elevation of eighty-five feet

Panama

was signed by five members, all of whom were American
experts. These reports were submitted to the Isthmian
Canal Commission, which, on February 5, 1906, sent a
report to the Secretary of War recommending a lock
canal. On June 29, 1906, Congress authorized the con-
struction of the lock type of canal.

Meanwhile, the Isthmian Canal Commission had been
devoting itself to the business of preparing for construc-
tion work.

I have already told you about the measures they took
for making the Isthmus healthy, and of the mosquito-
proof buildings they erected for the housing of staff
officers and the labour force.

The Commission first sought labour recruits among the
negroes, both in the States and the West Indies. From
a member of the Commission who, at the outset of its
organizing operations, was intimately associated with the
important work of recruiting labourers, I heard some
amusing stories about the way the negroes took the bait
which was designed to appeal to their sense of self-
importance. For instance :

Mr. Ebenezer Johnson, living in some little country
place in the States, would write to the head offices of the
Isthmian Canal Commission in New York applying for a
job as plumber. Provided his qualifications and charac-
ter were found to be satisfactory, a letter, running some-
what as follows was sent to him :

<c I have the honour to inform you that you have been
appointed plumber to the Isthmian Canal Commission/'

A few days later the staff officer who signed that letter
was pretty certain to be having this experience :

Clerk : Mr. Ebenezer Johnson to see you, sir.

Staff Officer : Who is he? I don't know him.

72

The Coming of the Americans

Clerk : He says he's had a letter from you.

Staff Officer : Show him in.

Enter Mr. Ebenezer Johnson, attired in draught-
board pattern trousers, black tail-coat, fancy waistcoat,
yellow tie, green socks and patent leather shoes, carrying
straw hat in one hand, letter in the other. " I am Mr.
Ebenezer Johnson," he announces in a tone which, com-
bined with his manner of walking over to the table,
suggests that the Panama works are at a standstill, and
that the staff officer has been eagerly waiting for him to
appear and announce his readiness to proceed at once to
the Isthmus to set things moving there.

A very little experience on the Isthmus taught the
Americans that it would be hopeless to attempt to
carry through their enterprise solely with negro labour.
The black man, considering himself indispensable, was
idle and uppish. The authorities decided to send to
Spain and Italy for labourers. White labourers were
attracted by the terms offered them, and went to the
Canal Zone. Spanish and Italian gangs were put to
work side by side with negro gangs. The black man
soon discovered that the white man was advising his
friends at home to come to Panama ; also, the black man
began to realize how much work he must do in a day if
he did not want to lose his job.

In addition to coping with the unhealthy condition of
the Isthmus, solving the housing problem, and recruiting
a labour force, the preliminary work of the Commission
included :

The transference to the Isthmus of construction plant,
consisting of steam shovels, locomotives, cars, pile-drivers,
cranes, dredges, steamboats, barges, etc., etc.

The organization of a Commissariat Service for supply-

PA. 73 10

Panama

ing the employees with all things necessary ror their com-
fort and convenience.

The framing of a system of civil government for the
Canal Zone, together with the establishment of courts, a
police force, post offices, public works, fire stations, and
suchlike civil machinery.

The increasing of the capacity of the existing railway
system, by double tracking many sections of the Panama
railroad, enlarging yards, and establishing communication
with areas available as dumping grounds.

In short, for the purpose of carrying through the " big
job " she had undertaken, America built on the Canal
Zone a vast construction camp, capable of accommodating
some 35,000 employees, together with the wives and
families of a large proportion of the married men on the
rolls ; also equipped that camp, and organized for it a
system of service and control calculated to make every
employee a healthy, happy, loyal and efficient servant.

The form of government devised for the Canal Zone by
the democratic United States is autocratic. Owing to the
acquisition by the United States of the Panama railroad,
and the care, springing from a keen commercial instinct,
which the American Government as boss of the cc big job,"
has taken to see that its employees are well housed and
properly fed, by itself housing them free and feeding them
at " cost price," some people have called the Canal Zone
system of government "socialism." That description of
the method by which the Zone community is ruled is
contradicted by the fact that the employees have no vote,
no say in the way they shall or shall not be ruled.

Colonel George W. Goethals, the Chief Engineer of
the Panama Canal, in whom absolute authority in the
Canal Zone has been vested since 1907, has won distinc-

74

The Coming of the Americans

tion as an able and just autocrat, in addition to universal
fame as a Master Engineer.

Colonel Gorgas, the popular Head of the Department
of Sanitation, is now world-famous as the man who
transformed a death-trap region into a veritable health-
resort.

Prominent among other men whose names must be put
high on the Panama scroll of fame are Mr. Joseph
Bucklin Bishop, Secretary of the Commission, and Dr.
Claude C. Pierce, the Quarantine Officer at Colon, who
was the first sanitary representative on the ground.

CHAPTER XV

THE PANAMA CANAL AUTUMN, 1912

COLON TO GATUN.

FROM Colon to Gatun the Canal is practically finished.
By the courtesy of one of the officials we are going to
make th^ acquaintance of this section by travelling on the
famous waterway.

With our host as guide, we leave Colon harbour in
a launch belonging to the Isthmian Canal Commission.
As the boat emerges into the open sea to sweep round
into Limon Bay, we espy the long line of a breakwater,
which is being built out from Toro Point to protect the
Atlantic entrance of the Canal from the storms that
occasionally rage with great violence in this part of the
world.

Two acetylene-gas buoys mark the boundaries of a
gateway amidst the waters of the Bay ; the little launch
passes between them — we are on the Panama Canal.

75

Panama

The man at the wheel keeps the boat within a well-buoyed
passage, which is a 41 -feet deep channel. When we are
told that beyond the buoys on the shore side the water is
only 8 feet deep, and beyond those forming the outer
boundary it is but 14 feet deep, we begin to realize that
we are travelling along an artificial passage, and to think
of the amount of work that had to be done to scoop out
such a big ditch in the bed of the Bay.

We can easily understand how the ditch was made, for
some of the dredges that performed the feat are still on
the scene, busily working to keep the channel in good
condition. We pass an old French dredge, a barge-like
monster which does its below-water gorging by means of
a continuous chain of buckets, like a gold-dredge ; every
time a bucket <c loops the loop " it fills itself to the brim
with earth, and dumps a sand-and-mud pie into the
capacious hold of the boat to which the chain is attached.
A little farther on we see an American suction-dredge.
This very large house-boat is as carefully screened as
are the shore quarters of the Canal employees. The
dredging machinery sucks earth from the bed of the Bay
into a pipe, which communicates with the shore ; so
powerful is the suction action that refuse can be dis-
charged on a dumping ground that is anywhere within a
radius of 8,000 feet from the dredge.

In lowering the bed of the Bay there was a considerable
amount of rock to be removed. This was loosened by
blasting, then removed by steam shovels, which dived
open-mouthed, clawed up into their jaws huge masses of
stone, clenched their enormous teeth, then, having been
hoisted above water, undamped their jaws to drop a two-
horse-cartload mouthful in an appointed dumping-place.

After a run of about four miles the launch reaches the

The Panama Canal — Autumn, 1912

southern shores of Limon Bay, and, steering inland, passes
straight from the buoyed passage into an opening that
looks like the mouth of a river. Whilst our little craft
proceeds within the broad confines of an inland water-
way, we notice that the banks, which were low-lying at
the entrance, are gradually getting higher ; also, that
mountain peaks, which but a short time ago seemed
isolated heights in the far distance, are now becoming
connected with a fast approaching panorama of hills
— evidently we are travelling through rising country.
Although the waterway follows a straight course, the
lines of its banks are sufficiently uneven to suggest that
they were carved by Nature, and that suggestion is
intensified by the magnificent tangle of tropical vegeta-
tion which barricades the boundaries up to the water's
scalloped edge. We cannot help feeling that we are on the
long reach of a river, albeit we are assured that the passage
is a continuation of the ditch which begins in Limon Bay.

The water along which we are now journeying occupies
a trench that, not long ago, was a hive of industry.
Working in that trench, on dry land, were hundreds
of men — Americans, Spaniards, Italians, Negroes, and
Hindoos, together with a vast number of steam shovels
and drilling machines ; these allies had already excavated
millions of cubic yards of rock and earth and still had
millions more cubic yards of material to remove before
the ditch they were making would be sufficiently wide
and deep.

We are thinking of near-at-hand days to come, and
picturing liners and merchantmen hurrying along this peace-
ful stretch of water which we now have to ourselves, when
suddenly the launch puts in to the shore. Close ahead
the passage is blocked by a remnant of land, which has

77

Panama

been left to serve as a dam until the Gatun Locks are
completed. We land, and set forth on a climbing expedi-
tion to view the wonders of Gatun.

Over mounds of debris, amidst railway sleepers and
across plank-bridged gulfs, we pick our way uphill along-
side the Gatun Locks. Ears and eyes are assailed by a
conflict of claims on intellect and imagination. The wells
of the locks are trying to awe us up by their gigantic pro-
portions, great gates of steel and massive walls of concrete
are defying us to say what likely accident could possibly
wreck them, high over head there are goods-laden cars
waving to us to watch them running along the tight-rope
of the aerial cableway, all around us men and machines
are doing novel things that entice our attention, and in
the bowels of the earth there are dwarf-like creatures
whose quaint antics bid us speculate on the industrial
meaning of their gymnastic exercises. We want to look
at all that is going on around, above and below us — we
want to imagine that there is water in the wells which
form the three tiers of locks, and that a big ship is going
upstairs — and we have to be on the alert to keep out of
harm's way, and not to get in the way of the workmen.

The locks are in pairs. Each well is 1 10 feet wide and
has a usable length of 1,000 feet. The gates vary in
height from 45 feet 7 inches to 79 feet. Ships will be
taken through the locks by motor engines, which will be
driven by electric power along railway lines that have
already been laid down across the towing-paths. Four
engines will be attached to each ship, one on either side
fore and aft, so as to keep her to the middle of the locks.

The Gatun Dam across the Chagres River is situated
at right angles to the locks and at the top of the hill
which they climb. It crosses two valleys, which are

78

The Panama Canal — Autumn, 1912

separated by a hill of no feet in height, now known as
Spillway Hill. The Dam has "mended " a break which
there was in the basin that Nature formed on the table-
land between Gatun and Bas Obispo. The Gatun Dam
is an American-made mountain, consisting largely of
u dump " from the Culebra Cut ; as sightseers who are
looking at it in its finished state we can hardly believe that
Nature herself did not rear this mighty earthwork at the
same time as she piled up the hills to which it is riveted.
The Gatun Lake, which we saw in process of forma-
tion when we were journeying by train between Colon
and Panama, will have an area of 164 square miles.
Fluctuations in the lake due to the floods of the Chagres
River in the rainy season will be controlled by the
regulating works that are being constructed in Spillway
Hill.

THE CULEBRA CUT.

We travel through the Culebra Cut in an observation
car, which is occasionally allowed to be driven over one of
the railway tracks which have been laid down for the service
of dirt-trains. A train-load of "dump" always takes
precedence of the sight-seeing car, which may be held up
for several minutes at the points to prevent a dirt-train
from losing a couple of seconds on its journey to or from
a dumping ground. The "Big Job " has first considera-
tion throughout the Canal Zone. Anyone who is at all
inclined to grumble over any little inconvenience caused
by his own affairs being treated as matters of minor
importance is entirely out of sympathy with the inspiring
spirit of the "Big Job," the spirit which induces the
navvy, no less than the chief engineer, to feel with pride
" I am making the Panama Canal," and which has already
brought the American enterprise to the verge of success.

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Panama

The Culebra Cut, commonly called the " Big Ditch,"
is the most difficult problem that has had to be grappled
with in connection with the "Big Job."

In the Bas Obispo neighbourhood of the natural basin,
which it was decided to subject to the service of the
Panama Canal, the tableland gives place to mountain
ranges. To reach a point where it would be possible to
start dropping the Canal to sea-level, it was necessary to
cut a nine-miles long ditch through rocky mountains.
To make that passage, land rising to a height of over
300 feet, 400 feet and sometimes over 500 feet above
sea-level must be reduced to the 85 foot level of the
surface of Gatun Lake, and that level must be further
reduced so as to allow the ditch, which must have a
bottom width of 300 feet, to hold 45 feet of water, which
is the minimum depth of water in the Canal channel
through Gatun Lake.

Statistics telling the number of cubic yards of earth
that have already been removed in the making of the
Culebra Cut are more likely to stifle interest than to
kindle enthusiasm — the figures are utterly beyond the
comprehension of the most intelligent of ordinary mortals.
But as from the depths of the Cut we look up to the
summit of its confines, and take a sweeping glance at the
surrounding mountains, we begin to realize that the vast
ravine through which we are journeying was once solid
earth, for the most part rock, and to get some idea of the
stupendousness of the transformation task.

The French began to excavate the Culebra Cut. The
Americans are following their plan of cutting out shelves,
using each shelf as the working platform for widening
the opening.

The entrance to the Culebra Cut at Bas Obispo is now

80

The Panama Canal — Autumn, 1912

blocked by a dam, a temporary earthwork which has been
constructed for the purpose of preventing the rising
waters of the Gatun Lake from entering the Cut until
such time as it is ready to receive them. When the Cut
is finished, the body of the Gatun Lake will not be
allowed to connect itself with the Culebra arm thereof
by the dramatic, and probably catastrophic, rush of water
that would take place were the dam removed whilst the
ditch was empty. Water will be siphoned into the Cut
from the great supply-basin, and the dam kept in place
until the surface of the water in the Culebra Cut and that
of the water in the body of the Gatun Lake have been
brought on a level with one another.

From Bas Obispo we travel for some little distance on
the actual bed of the ditch. But before the observation
car has gone very far, we are seeing a specimen of the
havoc which Nature is frequently working in the Culebra
Cut — the ditch suddenly seems to take on the appearance
of a dumping ground, and beneath the debris which
obstructs the passage we see mangled remains of a train.
Through landslips, caused by vast areas of clay playing
at " slides " on the smooth, sloping surfaces of rock, and
by poor quality rock breaking under the weight of the
mass of material above it, enormous quantities of material
frequently topple over, blocking an excavated area,
choking up the drainage trenches, tearing up tracks
and upsetting machinery. Bancroft

In the nine miles journey through the Culebra Cut,
from Bas Obispo to Pedro Miguel Lock, we see hun-
dreds of men engaged in operations connected with both
the excavation of the ditch and the re-excavation of parts
that have been choked by landslips. The labourers are
of various nationalities ; nearly all of them wear blue

PA. 8 1 ii

Panama

cotton shirts, but their taste in hats and trousers differs
considerably. Some of the men are in charge of steam
shovels ; some are superintending drilling machines ;
some ramming dynamite into the holes that have been
bored in the rock ; some driving, or riding on the dirt-
trains that are constantly passing us. And more than
once our car is held up at a short distance from the scene
of blasting operations ; an ear-splitting, as well as rock-
splitting, charge goes off, the earth quakes, the smoke
rolls away, we are surprised to find ourselves still sitting
in the car, and feel that we now have a very good inkling
of what it must be like to be in a bombardment.

THE PACIFIC SECTION.

At Pedro Miguel we see the lock whereby a vessel, in
passing through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to
the Pacific, will be lowered in one step from the 85-foot
elevation to the little Miraflores Lake, on the 54§-foot
elevation. And in an observation car we visit the Mira-
flores Locks, whereby the vessel will be lowered by two
steps into the sea-level channel through which she will
get to Balboa, and so complete her voyage across the
Isthmus. The works from Pedro Miguel to Balboa are
very similar to those with which we made acquaintance in
travelling from the inland entrance at Colon to Bas
Obispo.

The continuation of the Canal from Balboa to deep
water in the Pacific is a buoyed channel, similar to that
in Limon Bay. We travel along this section in a steamer
which is going to take us to the beautiful island of
Taboga, otherwise known as "The Pearl of the Pacific,"
whither we are bound for a bathe in Pacific waters and a

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The Panama Canal — Autumn, 1912

picnic among the hills. In passing through the buoyed
channel we get a very fine view of the breakwater that is
being constructed from Balboa to Naos Island — with
material from Culebra Cut — to divert the course of silt-
bearing currents that would make constant dredging
necessary in the channel.

WHEN THE CANAL is OPEN.

The Panama Canal will afford an alternative route to
that round Cape Horn. The reduction in sea distances
by the new route is specially noteworthy as regards the
following voyages :

Between ports on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards of
the United States — saving, generally speaking, about
8,000 miles.

Between the - eastern ports of North America and the
western ports of South America.

Between European ports and the west coast of North,
Central and South America. For instance, the
reduction between Liverpool and American Pacific
ports north of Panama is about 6,000 miles.

Between New York and Yokohama, via San Francisco —
saving about 3,700 miles. Thus Yokohama is
brought nearer to New York than to Liverpool (via
Suez) by about 1,800 miles.

Between Sydney, Australia, and New York — saving about
3,800 miles. Thus Sydney is brought nearly 2,400
miles nearer to New York than to Liverpool.

Between Wellington, New Zealand, and New York —
saving about 2,500 miles.

It is universally believed that the Panama Canal will
revolutionize the shipping of the world and considerably
stimulate commerce. But it is generally felt that the

83

Panama

amount of traffic it will be able to divert from the longer
routes and the amount of new trade to which it may give
rise will depend on the tolls charged. Everyone in the
commercial world believes that time is money, but before
anyone will pay for saving time by using the Panama
Canal he will have to feel convinced in his own mind that
the shortest way is the cheapest, all things considered.
And as the growth of commerce depends largely on
freight rates, the possibilities for trade development — in
such promising regions as the western coast of South
America, for instance — will be powerfully influenced by
the tolls charged for the use of the Panama Canal, for
they will be an important consideration when shippers are
fixing their charges for the transport of merchandise by
the new route.

Anyone who has seen the Canal in the making must
be tempted, when thinking of its future, to anticipate
some of the remarks which will probably be passed by
travellers getting their first introduction to the trans-
Isthmian waterway as they are taken through it in the
ordinary course of a voyage.

When the Canal is open, the bulk of the construction
work, and all the destruction work in the way of excava-
tion, will be under water ; also, in a comparatively short
time the Gatun Lake will be free of rotting vegetation
and looking as if it had been in existence from time
immemorial. Furthermore, the Canal zone will probably
be depopulated when the " Big Job " is finished. Those
of us who, having seen the Canal in the making, have
the good fortune to travel through the finished waterway,
will only have to forget for a moment a past experience
to understand why some of our fellow- passengers are
exclaiming : " I wonder why it took such a long time to

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The Panama Canal — Autumn, 1912

get this Canal job carried through," and cc I can't see how
the Americans managed to spend so much money in
making this Canal," and " I don't see that the Americans
did anything very wonderful in making this Canal-
seems to me all their Biggest Job in the World talk was
just Yankee swank."

It is quite sad to think that there may be people with-
out the necessary experience and knowledge to picture
the everyday life of the Colony that once flourished
"beneath" the waters and alongside the shores of the
Panama Canal.

You may be interested to hear that I have asked
several engineers, of different nationalities, whether they
consider the Americans are justified in claiming that the
Panama Canal is the biggest engineering job that has ever
been undertaken. In every case the answer has been to
this effect. Yes, nothing bigger has ever been undertaken,
but several of the smaller jobs that have been accom-
plished are more wonderful engineering feats.

Every possible precaution seems to have been taken to
avoid accidents. But I must confess that when I was
listening to a very interesting lecture that was being given
by an I.C.C. official on the ingenious safety devices, I
suddenly found myself thinking of the Titanic and the
Tower of Babel.

CHAPTER XVI

PANAMANIAN COUNTRY

PANAMA is divided into seven provinces — namely, Bocas
del Toro, Chiriqui, Cocl£, Colon, Los Santos, Panama,
and Veragua.

In the north-western province of Bocas del Toro, the

85

Panama

United Fruit Company are cultivating bananas on a large
scale. The Company's steamers, engaged in the New
York — West Indian Service, are thoroughly well equipped
for passenger traffic and maintain a regular weekly service
between Colon and the port of Bocas, whence millions of
bunches of bananas from the neighbouring plantations are
exported annually.

To or near many of the richest and most beautiful
parts of the Isthmus go the steamers of the National
Navigation Company, a local enterprise which was
established for trading purposes, but which is now
catering for tourist traffic. Every sightseer should
remember, when making inquiries about the facilities
afforded by these boats, that any person's criticism of the
native ideal of passenger accommodation is bound to be
influenced by the individual critic's standard of comfort
and convenience, and that there are some people who feel
they are paying too dearly for travelling in the wilds if
they have not all the luxuries of a first-class hotel at their
disposal, whilst others can appreciate and make the best
of any opportunity for getting off the beaten track.

At the offices of the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company in Panama city, arrangements can be made for
an excursion to the island of Taboga. The superin-
tendent of the P.S.N. Co., which is a British enterprise
intimately related to the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company, can be relied on to organize the trip to
Taboga on the lines of a luxurious picnic.

Many isolated centres of industry, together with the
undeveloped regions of the Republic, can only be reached
through the agency of Shank's pony, a mule, a native
canoe, a guide, camping kit, and carriers.

The pearl fisheries, around the Pearl Islands, are among

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Panamanian Country

the Republic's principal sources of income ; but the
grounds have been worked for centuries, and now yield a
poor harvest of gems compared with the treasures that
were wrested from them by the Spaniards. But although
hundreds of oysters may only furnish one pearl of value,
the shells have their price. Many tons of them are
bought annually by the United States and Europe, to be
used in the manufacture of buttons, buckles, and various
kinds of ornaments. Most of the divers are negroes.

Further, the principal products of the Republic include
cattle, which are raised in large numbers in the provinces
of Chiriqui and Veragua, corn, beans, rice, cocoa, coffee,
cocoa-nuts, and ivory-nuts. Large quantities of ivory-
nuts go to Hamburg, whence they are re-exported to
Italy to be made into buttons.

The Isthmian forests are richly stocked with many
varieties of timber, several of the woods having such
excellent qualities as durability and beauty. Tropical
forests, more commonly known as "The Bush," are a
magnificent tangle of luxurious vegetation ; trees rise
from an impassably dense undergrowth, swarms of
parasitic plants grow on their trunks and boughs, and the
overhead branches of neighbouring giants intertwine, or
are linked together by creepers. Numerous varieties of
orchids are a feature of the Panamanian Bush.

Gold mines are worked in the rich Darien district, the
region which the British tried to colonize towards the
close of the seventeenth century, and which is intimately
associated with that great financial disaster known as the
South Sea Bubble. However, it is a British company,
the Darien Gold Mining Company of London, that has
obtained much of the wealth that has been redeemed
from the Darien region during recent years.

8?

Panama

The Indians play no insignificant part in the trade of
the Isthmus. One of their principal trading stations is at
the port of San Carlos, in the south-west of the province
of Panama. The most interesting of the Isthmian
aborigines are the San Bias Indians, who inhabit a
district in the north-east of the province of Colon. For
centuries they have kept their race pure. Until recently
they would not allow any stranger to set foot on their
shores ; even now, anyone who visits their country is
closely watched, and is not permitted to stay the night.
San Bias Indians frequently go to Colon city for trading
purposes. They make the trip there and back, eighty
odd miles each way, in cayukas, which carry a cargo of
bananas, cocoa-nuts, and ivory-nuts. Cayukas or dug-
outs are little one-piece boats, made from the trunk of a
tree by cutting and burning operations ; they are all
fitted with a sail, and some are very beautifully modelled.

The San Bias Indians are wonderful sailors and
swimmers. A story I heard bears witness to their
aquatic prowess, for if it is not founded on fact, it is
certainly born of fame.

A cayuka, manned by one Indian and loaded with a
hundred cocoa-nuts, ran into a gale when on the high sea
between the San Bias country and Colon, and was
capsized. The Indian reached Colon in that cayuka,
with ninety-nine cocoa-nuts for the market.

BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD

BEAUTIFUL BOOKS FOR

YOUNG PEOPLE

MANY WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
OTHERS FULLY ILLUSTRATED IN BLACK AND WHITE

PRICE 1/6 EACH

BLACK'S "PICTURE
SER

AND OTHER 5

Crown 4to., with picture in colou
illustrations, of whi

The Children's World
The World in Pictures
The British Isles in Pictures
The British Empire in Pictures
Europe in Pictures

NOTE.— These volumes are all

5 OF MANY LANDS"
JES

IMILAR BOOKS

r on the cover, each containing 58
ch 32 are in colour.

How other People Live
Beasts and Birds
Gardens in their Seasons
Pictures of British History

o to In had in cltih at ac. each.

Large crown 8vo., cl<
Eric ; or, Little by Little
St. Winifred's ; or, The World of
School
Scott's Waverley Novels. 5

)th, with frontispiece.
Julian Home : a Tale of College
Life

u list at the end of this Catalogue.

PRICE 1/6 NET EACH

RED CAP TALE

Large crown 8vo., cloth, each contai
Waverley
Guy Mannering
Rob Roy
The Pirate, and A Legend of
Montrose

S FROM SCOTT

aing 8 full-page illustrations in colour.
The Antiquary
Ivanhoe
Fortunes of Nigel
Quentin Durward

How to Use the Microscope. A

Guide for the Novice. Contain-
ing 20 full-page illustrations from
photo-micrographs, etc.

Gardening Birthday Book
The Fairy Tales Birthday Book

(Autu)nn, 1913)

12 full-page illustrations in colour
in each

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

PRICE

NET EACH (Continued)

Large crown tfvo , cloth, with picture in colour on the cover.

PEEPS AT MANY LANDS AND CITIES

Each containing 12 full-page illustrations in colour.
Australia
Belgium
Berlin

British North
Borneo

(Autumn, 1913)

Burma
Canada
Ceylon
"China
Corsica
Cuba

(Autumn, 1913)
Delhi and the
Durbar

* Also to be had in French at 28. net each. See " Les Beaux Voyages " Series.
For Larger Series of " Peeps at Many Lands and Cities" see list »f Z». $d. net Books.

PEEPS AT NATURE

Each containing 16 full-page illustrations, 8 of them in colour.

Denmark

*lndia

Panama

Edinburgh

Ireland

Paris

"Egypt

Italy

Portugal

Egypt, Ancient

Jamaica

Rome

England

*Japan

'"Russia

Finland

Java

*Scotl»nd

Florence

Kashmir

*Siam

France

Korea

South Africa

Germany

London

South Seas

Greece

*Morocco

* Spain

Holland

Newfoundland

Sweden

Holy Land

New York

Switzerland

Hungary

New Zealand

Turkey

Iceland

Norway

Wales

Bird Life of the Seasons
British Butterflies [Horsetails
British Ferns, Club-Mosses, and
British Land Mammals
British Moths
Natural History of the Garden

The Naturalist at the Sea-Shore
Pond Life

Reptiles and Amphibians
Romance of the Rocks
Wild Flowers and their Wonder-
ful Ways

PEEPS AT HISTORY

Each containing 8 full-page illustrations in colour, and 20 line drawings in

the text.

America

The Barbary Rovers

Canada
Holland

India
Japan

Scotland

PEEP5 AT GREAT RAILWAYS

Canadian Pacific Railway

(Autumn, 1913)

Great Western Railway
London and North-Western Rail-
way

North-Eastern and Great Nor-
thern Railways (in i volume)

South-Eastern and Chatham and
London, Brighton and South
Coast Railways (in i volume)

PEEPS AT INDUSTRIES

Each containing 24 full-page illustrations from photographs.
| Sugar J Tea

OTHER

Peeps at the Heavens

Peeps at Architecture(^«/«w«)I9I3)

Peeps at Heraldry

Peeps at the Navy <Attttmat $

Peeps at Palaces \A*tum*\ 191$

PEEPS" VOLUMES

Peeps at the Life and Legends of
Other Lands (Norse and Lapp)

(Autumn, 1913)

Peeps at the Life of Sir Walter

Scott (Autumn, 1913)

" HOMES OF MANY LANDS'* SERIES
India. Containing 12 full-page illustrations in colour.

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PRICE

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BEA

Large square demy 8

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Canterbury
Channel Islands
English Lakes
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Isle of Arran

.UTIFUL BRIT

vo., bound in cloth, each c
illustrations in colour.

Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
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London
Oxford
Stratford-on-Avon
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AIN

ontaining 12 full-page

Peak Country
Thames
Trossachs
North Wales
Wessex
Westminster Abbey
Windsor and Eton

PRICE 2/= NET EACH

LES

(A SERIES OF " P

Large crown 8vo., c

Algerie
Alsace
Chine
Ecosse

BEAUX VOYA

EEPS AT MANY LAN

loth, each containing 12 fu
n colour and a sketch-map

Egypte
Espagne
Indes
Indo-Chine

QES

DS" IN FRENCH)

11-page illustrations

Japon
Maroc
Russie
Tunisie

PRICE 2/= EACH

SCOTT'S WAVERLEY NOVELS. See list at

the end of this Catalogue.

PRICE 2/6 NET EACH

Containing 16 full-page illustrations from photographs
What the Other Children do

BIBLIOTHEQUE ROUGE EN COULEURS

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Les Contes de ma Grand'mere | £ric

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( 3 )

2/6

PRICE & O EACH

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Stories of Old. (Small crown 4/0.)
Eric ; or, Little by Little
St. Winifred's ; or, The World of
School

Julian Home: A Tale of College

Life
Scott's Waver ley Novels. See list at

the end of this Catalogue.

3/6

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Larger Volumes in the style of the Popular One Shilling and Sixpenny net "PEEPS
AT MANY LANDS AND CITIES" Series.

Each containing 32 full-page illustrations in colour.

The World

The British Empire

The Gorgeous East (India, Burma, Ceylon, and Siam)

The Far East (China, Japan, and Korea)

Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and South Seas)

Large crown 8vo., cloth.

The Open Book of Nature: A Book of Nature Study for Young
People. 16 full-page illustrations in colour and 114 reproductions from
photographs, etc.

The Alps. 24 full-page illustrations from photographs
The Holy Land. (Not illustrated)

CONTES ET NOUVELLES

BEAUTIFUL BOOKS IN FRENCH FOR YOUNG PEOPLE.

Large square crown 8vo., cloth, each containing 12 full-page
illustrations in colour.

Les Petits Aventuriers en

Amerique

La Guerre aux Fauves
Un Tour en Melanesie

La Case de I'Oncle Tom (8 pictures
in colour and 16 in black and
white)

Voyages de Gulliver

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

(4 )

PRICE

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GREAT BUILDINGS AND
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HOW TO

A SERIES OF HANDBOOKS FOR THE AMATEUR LOVER OF
ARCHITECTURE

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from photographs.

Early Christian and Byzantine

Architecture
Gothic Architecture

Greek Architecture
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Romanesque Architecture

PRICE

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LIFE STORIES OF ANIMALS

Large crown 8vo. , cloth, each containing 8 full-page illustrations in colour.

The Black Bear
The Cat
The Dog

The Fowl

The FOX (Autumn, 1913)

The Lion

The Rat
The Squirrel
The Tiger

Large crown 8vo.,
In the Grip of the Wild Wa

(Autumn, 1913)

Tales of St. Austin's

The Head of Kay's

Mike : A Public School Story

The Gold Bat

Psmith in the City

The Pothunters

A Prefect's Uncle

The White Feather

The First Voyages of Glorious

Memory (Hakluyt)
Nipping Bear

The Adventures of Don Quixote
Park's Travels in the Interior of

Africa

cloth, illustrated.

By a Schoolboy's Hand
Exiled from School
From Fag to Monitor
The Sea Monarch
The Scouts of Seal Island

(Autumn, 1913)

Cook's Voyages and Discoveries

Dana's Two Years Before the
Mast

The Divers

Stories from Waverley
The Life of St. Paul
The Right Sort
God's Lantern- Bearers
The Kinsfolk and Friendsof Jesus
The Story of Stories : A Life of
Christ for the Young

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

( 5 )

PRICE 3/6 EACH (Continued)

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Tales from Scottish Ballads

Beasts of Business

The Story of a Scout

Hero and Heroine

Two Boys in War-Time

Stories. (Ascott R. Hope)

The Story of Robin Hood and His

Half-Text History. (No illustrations]

Merry Men

Black and Blue

The Wolf Patrol

Cap and Gown Comedy

Jack Haydon's Quest

(No illustrations)

Red Men of the Dusk

All Astray

The Saints in Story

The King Who Never Died

The Vicar of Wakefield

The Bui! of the Kraal

The Mystery of Markham

A Tale of the Time of the Cave

(Autumn, 1913)

Men

Black Evans

J. O. Jones, and How He Earned

Tangerine : A Child's Letters
from Morocco

His Living
Jim Mortimer

Willy Wind, and Jock and the
Cheeses

Green at Greyhouse

The Adventures of Oliver Twist

Tales of Greyhouse

(Autumn, 1913)

Robinson Crusoe

Life of Sir Walter Scott

Eric

Scott's Poetical Works

St. Winifred's

Scott's Waverley Novels. Ste list

Julian Home

at the end of this Catalogue

PRICE 5/= NET EACH

Large crown 8vo., cloth.

Demy 4to. (oblong), cloth gilt.

Through the Telescope

Our Old Nursery Rhymes

The Life and Love of the Insect

Little Songs of Long Ago (More

The Ramparts of Empire

Old Nursery Rhymes)

PRICE 5/= EACH

Crown 8vo., cloth.

Here and There. (Illustrated)

Ready-Made Romance

The Schoolboy Abroad

Dramas in Duodecimo

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

( 6 )

PRICE 6/= EACH

Small square demy 8vo., clotl:

Grimm's Fairy Tales
>Csop's Fables
The Arabian Nights (Autumn, 1913)
Hans Ar\dersen's Fairy Tales
Swiss Family Robinson
The Fairchild Family (Autumn, 1913)
The Pilgrim's Progress
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Adventurers in America
The Children's Book of Stars
The Children's Book of Edin-
burgh
TheChildren's BookofGardening
The Children's Book of Art
The Children's Book of London

i, with illustrations in colour.

The Children's Book of Celtic
Stories
Children's Tales of English Min-
sters
Russian Wonder Tales
Tales from "The Earthly Para-
dise" (Autumn, 1913)

Gulliver's Travels into Several
Remote Nations of the World
Talks about Birds
Red Cap Tales
Red Cap Adventures
The Tales of a Grandfather
The Book of the Railway

A LIST OF CHEAPER BOOKS SUITABLE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
PUBLISHED AT Is. Od., 9d., and 6d. EACH

PRICE l/= EACH

Eric ; or, Little by Little
St. Winifred's ; or, The World of
School

Julian Home; a Tale of College
Life

PRICE l/= NET EACH

TALES OF ENQI

Large crown 8vo. , each conta
Canterbury Ely
Durham Hereford

.ISH MINSTERS

ining 6 full-page illustrations.

Lincoln St. Paul's
St. Albans York

Scott's Waverley Novels. Crown 8vo., cloth, each volume containing a
frontispiece in colour. Set list at the end of this Catalogue

PRICE 9d.

Black's Painting Book for Children. By AGNES NIGHTINGALE. Con-
taining 23 page outline pictures for colouring. Small crown 4to. , bound
in attractive cover

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

( 7 )

PRICE

6d.

EACH

Demy 8vo. , picture paper covers.

*Erlc; or, Little by Little

*St Winifred's ; or, The World of

*Julian Home: a Tale of College
Life

School Scott's Waverley Novels. See list

following
* These may be had bound together in doth cover for 2S. 6d.

THE WAVERLEY NOVELS

By SIR WALTER SCOTT

The Authentic Editions of Scott are published solely by A. and C. BLACK,
who purchased along with the copyright the interleaved set of the Waverley
Novels in which Sir Walter Scott noted corrections and improvements
almost to the day of his death. The under-noted editions have been collated
word for word with this set, and many inaccuracies, some of them ludicrous,

corrected.

LIST OF THE NOVELS

Waverley

Guy Mannering

The Antiquary

Rob Roy

Old Mortality

Montrose, and Black Dwarf

The Heart of Midlothian

The Bride of Lammermoor

Ivanhoe

The Monastery

The Abbot

Ken i I worth

The Pirate

For Details regarding

The Fortunes of Nigel

Peveril of the Peak

Quentin Durward

St. Ronan's Well

Redgauntlet

The Betrothed, etc.

The Talisman

Woodstock

The Fair Maid of Perth

Anne of Geierstein

Count Robert of Paris

The Surgeon's Daughter, etc.

Editions and Prices see below.

LIST OF EDITIONS OF THE WAVERLEY NOVELS

New Popular Edition. 25 Volumes. Price 6d. per Volume.
The Portrait Edition. 25 Volumes. Price I/- net per Volume.
Victoria Edition. 25 Volumes. Price 1/6 per Volume.
Two Shilling Edition. 25 Volumes. Price 2/- per Volume.
Standard Edition. 25 Volumes. Price 2/6 per Volume.
Dryburgh Edition. 25 Volumes. Price 3/6 per Volume.

PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, 4, 5 AND 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.